The “Harry Potter” series is all grown up, that is if you count an on-screen lip lock as a sign of maturity. In one of the most talked about moments in an upcoming “Harry Potter” movie, Emma Watson, who plays witchcraft ingenue Hermione Granger, kisses Rupert Grint, the actor who plays Harry Potter’s friend Ron Weasley.

It does not come in “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince,” which opens in the U.S. and many other countries on July 15, but in the next installment in the series, “Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows,” which is split into two movies.

Still, fans of the series can’t wait to see that bit of cinematic spark between Watson and Grint, and interestingly they appear to be less interested in Harry Potter working his own romantic mojo. In a poll conducted by online ticket seller Fandango.com, 59 percent of respondents said the on-screen kiss they most want to see is between Hermione (Watson) and Ron (Grint). Only 41 percent of respondents said they can’t wait to see the peck between Harry Potter (played by Daniel Radcliffe) and Ginny Weasley (Bonnie Wright). 

Maybe that has something to do with the screen appeal of the 19-year-old Watson, who was listed No. 82 on men’s magazine Maxim’s list of the most beautiful 100 women in the world.

The fact that a kiss is one of the most anticipated moments in the “Harry Potter” series shows how the movies have evolved along with the audience to more adult themes of love and romance.

On that note, director David Yates said in this Reuters story: ”Our cast are just getting that little bit older now and the hormones are starting to fly and for me it marks a real transition point between our cast as children and our cast as adults.” 

Watson herself seemed to describe a dizzying conflict of impulses in an explanation of her kiss with Grint. On the BBC program Friday Night with Jonathan Ross,” Watson said that she was not thrilled to do the kissing scene, because of the public interest. “I pounced on him, I was so desperate to get it over with,” Watson said on the program.

In other findings from the Fandango poll of more than 1,000 ticket buyers, 69 percent said that the critics’ (mostly positive) reviews of the new film have no effect on their decision to go. Also, the last movie in the series, 2007’s “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix,” ranked as respondents’ favorite movie in the series with 36 percent of the overall vote.