Hey fellow HP-fans! I didn’t get to make it to Dragon-Con (one day!… one day…), but I did find this awesome video of Tom Felton’s panel at the convention. I’m sure you can find the other bits of his Q&A online, but the part I find the most entertaining and informative was explaining the hug:

Yeah, that was one of the best non-book moments of the last film. Instantly hilarious forever, but still good. Maybe it has its critics for the silliness factor, but the great thing about the hug is not just the bizarre internet meme quality of it, believe it or not. Really, this moment is right up old Voldemort’s alley. This sinister, sadistic man has been terrifying Draco and his family for a whole year… really two years if (like me) you consider forcing him to commit murder on pain of death to be terrifying.

Draco has seen the Dark Lord kill and torture so many people in the last year, including a teacher from his own school. So when Draco is carefully and desperately trying to reach his dear mummy, and Voldemort comes in for the bear hug like a geriatric corpse (look at that wobble), we know that this is just another way of terrifying the kid. Voldemort loves being a monster, loves knowing that he can do pretty much whatever the hell he wants because people don’t want to be avada kedavra’ed. You just know Voldemort was relishing that moment. Cause he’s Voldemort, and he does what he wants.