'Harry Potter' Casts Quotes About Tom Felton and Emma Watson

Love at Hogwarts? There may be nothing romantic going on between Emma Watson and Tom Felton now, but back in the day, some Harry Potter stars were convinced that the pair were endgame.

In 2011, the actress — who starred as Hermione Granger in the eight-film franchise — admitted to crushing on her costar — known for his role as Draco Malfoy — while filming the first few movies in the early 2000s. “For the first two movies, I had a huge crush on Tom Felton. He was my first crush,” she told Seventeen at the time. “He totally knows. We talked about it — we still laugh about it. We are really good friends now, and that’s cool.”

While the duo never crossed over the friendship line, some of their HP colleagues had hoped for an on-set romance between the pair.

Rupert Grint, for one, told Entertainment Tonight in November 2019 that “there was always something” between Tom and Emma. “There was a little bit of a spark,” the actor, who played Ron Weasley, recalled. “But we were kids. It was like any kind of playground romance. I didn’t have any sparks. I was spark-free.”

Tom himself even told the Daily Mail in November 2019 that Emma was an “incredibly smart and lovely young lady” after she coined the term “self-partnered” during an interview with British Vogue around the same time. “It’s always nice to bump into each other and slightly reminisce about old times but also about looking forward to the future,” he added.

In 2018, the pair made headlines after skateboarding together in L.A. “Lovely Emma. We do see each other quite a lot actually. We just don’t always post pictures about it,” Tom told Us Weekly at the time about their hangout session. “Everyone loves the reunion of it. We’re reuniting all the time we just don’t always post it on Instagram.”

While Harry Potter fans are still holding out hope for these two to get together, Emma seems to be enjoying her long-term romance with boyfriend Leo Robinton. The couple looked happy in love as they shared a kiss during a rare outing in May 2021, after assuring fans on social media that they were not engaged. Emma and Leo have kept their relationship out of the public eye throughout their time together, but the duo was first linked in October 2019. Leo was known as a mystery man until the Daily Mail revealed his identity in April 2020, and they’ve been going strong ever since!

Scroll through our gallery to see what the Harry Potter stars have said about Emma and Tom over the years.

Love J-14? Be sure to subscribe to our YouTube channel for fun, exclusive videos with your favorite stars.

Relationship Pact?

During an Access Hollywood interview in October 2022, Tom was asked if he and Emma ever made a pact to keep their relationship platonic. “No definitely not. None of us had that pact,” the Draco Malfoy actor said of the entire cast. “There was chemistry but no one acted on it as far as I know.”

Unique Love For One Another

“I’ve always had a secret love for Emma, though not perhaps in the way that people might want to hear,” Tom wrote in his book, Beyond the Wand: The Magic & Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard released on October 18, 2022. “That isn’t to say that there’s never been a spark between us. There most definitely has, only at different times.” The actor behind Draco Malfoy said that “rumors” of a romance started around the time he was 15 and she was 12 and that he “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,” writes Tom. After reflecting on their relationship, he noted that he doesn’t think he was ever “in love” with Emma but that he did love her and “admired her as a person in a way that I could never explain to anybody else.”

Soulmates

“As you’ll read in this book, our relationship didn’t start well,” Emma wrote about her friendship with Tom in the introduction to his book, Beyond the Wand: The Magic & Mayhem of Growing Up a Wizard released on October 18, 2022. “When we first met, I was a moony and probably rather annoying nine-year-old girl who followed him round like a puppy, desperate for his attention,” wrote Emma, per Seventeen.

“Like Tom, I always struggle to explain to people the nature of our connection and relationship. For more than twenty years now, we’ve loved each other in a special way,” she continued. “It’s one of the purest loves I can think of. We’re soulmates, and we’ve always had each other’s backs. I know we always will. It makes me emotional to think about it.”

Their Past Crush

Emma further addressed the “crush” of it all while on the Jonathan Ross Show in 2012. “Between the ages of ten and twelve I had a really terrible crush on Tom Felton, to the extent that I would go into work in the morning and look down the numbers on the call sheet to see if he was going to be in,” she said. “We love a bad guy, he was a few years older and he had a skateboard – and that just did it really.”

The actress added, “He totally knew and the thing is that he’d tell everyone, ‘I see her in a younger, sisterly way,’ and it just broke my heart … It still does.”

The Reunion Special

“I walked into the room where we were having tutoring. The assignment that had been given was to draw what you thought God had looked like and Tom had drawn a girl with a backward cap on on a skateboard,” she recalled. “And I just don’t know how to say it, I just fell in love with him. … I think the truth of it was Tom was the one that I could often be more vulnerable with.”

Strong Feelings

“We are something, if that makes any sense. We’ve been very close for a long time. I adore her,” Tom told Entertainment Tonight in June 2021. “I think she’s fantastic. Hopefully she returns the compliment.”

He continued, “As far as the romantic side of it, I think that’s a Slytherin/Gryffindor thing rather than a Tom and Emma thing. I absolutely think the world of her. I think to be a part of what we’ve all been a part of, but for her to be the only girl, certainly the youngest one on set, to grow up with what she had to grow up with was incredibly exciting. You’re going to get me teary now, but no, I think she’s a fantastic influence on the world.”

Reflecting on the Past

“By the time I got [on set], they were all mature and those hormones were calming down,” Evanna Lynch told Us Weekly in June 2021. Speaking about Tom and Emma’s crush specifically, Evanna said, “They’re both such charismatic and gorgeous people. It’s hard to see how they wouldn’t, but I don’t know. I would never have the nerve to ask either of them about that.”

Dream TeamOn-Set Romance? The ‘Harry Potter’ Cast Has Been Shipping Tom Felton and Emma Watson for Years