Tom Felton and Emma Watson’s Draco Malfoy and Hermione Granger may have had an antagonist relationship in the Harry Potter series, but they had a very amicable relationship with each other in real life. The question of how amicable came when it was first revealed that during Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, Watson had a crush on Felton. In his new memoir about his time in the Harry Potter movies, Tom Felton wrote about his “unspoken” love for Emma Watson.
The memorable moments from HBO Max’s Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return to Hogwarts are proof that co-stars who worked together for ten years develop a bond with each other that can never go away no matter how long they’ve seen each other. According to Daily Mail, Tom Felton wrote in his memoir Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard about how he felt about his former Harry Potter co-star Emma Watson. One excerpt reads:
I’ve always had a secret love for Emma, though not perhaps in the way that people might want to hear. That isn’t to say that there’s never been a spark between us. There most definitely has, only at different times.
There’s always the one who got away, isn’t there? At the time that Emma Watson had a crush on Tom Felton, she was 12 years old and he was 15 with a girlfriend. She’s previously said that Felton was her first crush and that it’s a subject the two of them still laugh about. In one of the adorable moments the two of them shared during the reunion, Watson said she first fell for Felton when during a tutoring session, they had the assignment to draw what they thought God looked like and he drew a girl wearing a backward skateboarding cap. That clearly made her swoon! But when they first met, their relationship was about as antagonistic as their characters. Our favorite Slytherin actor was dumbfounded that Watson didn’t know what a boom mic was during their audition and Felton would hang out with his clique of other Slytherin actors on his own. Looks like life imitating fiction.
Even though these two Harry Potter stars have never been romantically involved, they still keep giving us all of these reasons to ship them. A few years ago, Tom Felton posted a photo on Instagram of him teaching the Beauty and the Beast star how to play the guitar which caused a social media sensation. He added in his book addressing the rumors of him being romantically interested in Emma Watson.
Rumors started to abound that there was more to our relationship than we were letting on. I denied that I liked her in that way, but the truth was different. My girlfriend at the time knew straight away that there was something unspoken between us. I remember using the familiar old line, ‘I love her like a sister.’ But there was more to it than that.
It seems as if there was a little spark that Tom Felton noticed between himself and Watson. But, there were always other relationships occurring at the time. The Belle actor was in a relationship with stunt assistant Jade Olivia Gordon who you saw playing his wife in Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows Part 2 epilogue from 2008 until 2016. Emma Watson was in a relationship with American businessman Leo Robinton from 2019 until 2021. She’s currently dating Brandon Green who’s the son of billionaire Sir Philip Green. So with Emma Watson being taken, we should probably hold off shipping her with Felton.
While Tom Felton seems to have a lot of love for Emma Watson, he doesn’t describe it as romantic love despite how much she means to him.
I don’t think I was ever in love with Emma, but I loved and admired her as a person in a way that I could never explain to anybody else… we were kindred spirits. I know for certain I’ll always have Emma’s back and she’ll always have mine too.
The Bling Ring actress has described Tom Felton as her “soulmate” before when she wrote the foreword of his new book. She’s spoken about the connection the two of them have and all of his admirable qualities. In fact, we can thank the Hermione Granger actress for encouraging Felton to tell his story exactly the way it is and not to skip any parts or sugarcoat anything. This is great advice for anyone writing a memoir to not be afraid to tell your truth as you give readers a glimpse into your experiences.
Even if Tom Felton and Emma Watson do not have romantic feelings for each other right now, they still have a strong budding love for each other they will always stay with them. You can watch these two in the Harry Potter reunion special on your HBO Max subscription and the entire Harry Potter series on your Peacock subscription. Be sure to read Tom Felton's memoir Beyond the Wand: The Magic and Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard hitting the shelves on October 18th.
