When ‘Potter’ is finally over, he’ll muggle his way through

You know those tales of lost youth that spring from actors who are too successful too soon?

You will probably not hear any about Daniel Radcliffe, who conjures up his alter ego Harry Potter for the fourth boy-wizard film saga, “Harry Potter and The Goblet of Fire.”

“If childhood is being surrounded by people who you love being around and being incredibly happy, then I absolutely have had that,” he says. “It’s been a bizarre childhood. It’s been strange, but it’s been great.”

Radcliffe, now an articulate 16-year-old, has not been arrested, has not warred with his parents over his millions now tucked away, or thrown hissy fits on the set.

“They all know exactly what they’re worth,” “Goblet” director Mike Newell says of Radcliffe and co-stars Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, “but they have not become impossible.”

Radcliffe became a global icon as a 10-year-old when he won a worldwide casting call to breathe life into the hero from J.K. Rowling‘s best-selling books.

Despite endless adoration, he seems to be avoiding that notorious fraternity of thespian lads who turn rotten.

He has never been stung by a bad review or an unflattering portrait. That’s because he’s never read any of his press. His parents, Alan Radcliffe and Marcia Gresham, have provided a magic carpet ride into puberty by protecting him from both the adulation and the evisceration.

Radcliffe remains blissfully ignorant of his riches as well – reported to be next in line behind fellow young Brits Charlotte Church and Prince Harry.

“To be honest, I don’t actually know how much at this point,” Radcliffe says. “I don’t, really. In a way, I think that’s right. It’s not something that affects the way I think about things.”

For the first time since he began the “Harry Potter” installments, Radcliffe is set to work on another feature, “December Boys,” a coming-of-age tale in which he will play an orphan. It begins shooting in Australia in December.

Taking a cue from one of his idols, Gary Oldman – who plays Harry’s godfather, Sirius Black, in the Potter movies – Radcliffe wants to forge various on-screen personas.

“If I was to complete the (Potter) series without having done anything else during that time, it would be harder to be seen as anything else,” he says.

At the moment, Radcliffe is preparing for the fifth Potter edition, “The Flight of the Phoenix.”

As for No. 6, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” (Rowling is at work on a seventh and final volume), he says: “Ultimately it comes down to whether I feel like doing it. If it’s a great script, a great director and it will challenge me, there’s no reason for me not to do it.

“I’ve read the sixth book. It’s such an amazing part for me if I was to do it. That would definitely be something that would challenge me. But it’s a long way away.”

Radcliffe speaks frankly about his less-than-magical ways with girls, saying their expectations of him as Harry dissolve into a “grimmer reality.”

But he knows the Potter experience will long outlive his awkwardness.

“This has given me a feeling of confidence,” says Radcliffe, “which I might not have had otherwise.”

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