Move over Hermione: Hopefuls disappointed as tap-dancing actress claims Harry Potter role

So 20 year-old Jessie Cave has good reason to smile after landing the latest role in the sixth Harry Potter film.

Two years after leaving school the tap-dancer from West London, has landed the part of Lavender Brown, Ron Weasley's first girlfriend, in Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince.

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Carrot-topped actor Rupert Grint has become an unlikely heartthrob after appearing in five Harry Potter films - and it can't hurt that he's got £10 million in the bank.

But Miss Cave beat around 7,000 hopefuls to the coveted role in the next film due out in November next year. The daughter of a GP won a place at Manchester University but left to pursue acting - a career she only considered after leaving school.

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An athlete as well as performer she is a former county swimmer and ex-national tennis player.

Instead of stage school Miss Cave attended a mixed comprehensive school in Ealing and is the eldest of four of siblings.

But the Harry Potter producers almost missed out on the young actress who initially had her sights set on working backstage.

Miss Cave had intended to study stage management at the Royal Academy of Dramatic Arts (RADA) but has recently won a slew of television and film roles.

As well as the Potter character she will appear in new CBBC drama Summerhill at the beginning of next year and on the big screen in upcoming film Inkheart opposite Dame Helen Mirren.

Miss Cave is two years older than the open audition age range which asked for candidates aged between 15 and 18.

Around 7,000 hopefuls queued in vain at open auditions at Earls Court in July which stipulated there was 'no acting experience necessary'.

Director David Yates claimed the auditions aimed to avoid 'kids who have been to stage school and who come in tap-dancing and singing.'

He added: 'What we are looking for is someone natural and absolutely credible in their own right.'

Miss Cave, however, lists tap-dancing, ballet and jazz among her skills on her CV as well as a variety of accents including Received Pronunciation, London, Essex, Northern Irish, Standard American, Southern American and Australian.

Lavender is Ron Weasley's first girlfriend and a fellow pupil at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry.

He is appalled when she kisses him constantly and calls him 'Won Won' - while he secretly pines for Hermione Granger.

Producers described the character as 'a pretty and lively girl who loves to be the centre of attention'.

David Yates said: 'She is determined to make Ron her boyfriend and when she gets him, she is then deeply possessive of him. She reacts in an extreme way to everything. She tends to be either laughing or crying hysterically.'

Open auditions were also held for the character of Tom Riddle, who goes on to become the evil Voldemort. The winner of that role has yet to be announced.

The last Harry Potter film did feature an unknown found through a casting call.

Evanna Lynch, 14, a schoolgirl from Termonfeckin in Co Louth, Ireland, beat 15,000 hopefuls to the role of eccentric Hogwarts pupil Luna Lovegood.

As an 11-year-old, Evanna wrote to Rowling saying she would love to appear in a Harry Potter film but doubted it would happen to a girl from 'this sleepy little place called Termonfeckin, where nothing ever happened'.

To her surprise, Rowling replied and told her: 'Don't be too hard on Termonfeckin; it does have a brilliant name.

And I come from a very sleepy place.'