SET SCANDAL: DRACO BULLYING HERMIONE WAS REAL!
The dark secrets of the Harry Potter set are finally coming to light, and the truth is brutal. Tom Felton, the actor who perfectly embodied the conniving villain Draco Malfoy, is confessing in his new memoir, Beyond the Wand, that he and his Slytherin crew mercilessly bullied a -year-old Emma Watson, leaving the future superstar “visibly upset” and racked with shame for years!
Felton, who was at the time, recalls that on the set of Sorcerer’s Stone, there was a toxic, childish divide between the young actors based on their characters’ Hogwarts houses. He and his friends, adopting the “cooler” stance of the Slytherins, spent their free time listening to hardcore rap—Wu-Tang, Biggie, Pac—while little Watson, the earnest Hermione, wanted to share her innocent joy.
The bombshell moment came when -year-old Watson put together a sweet little dance show and invited the boys to watch during lunchtime. Felton admits he and his friends were “predictably dismissive” and deliberately “sniggered” through the entire performance. This wasn’t playful teasing; this was outright emotional cruelty that left the young actress in tears.
THE DANCE FLOOR CRUELTY AND THE AWKWARD APOLOGY
Felton’s own words in the memoir are damning, exposing the sheer thoughtlessness of the young bullies:
“We sniggered our way down to Emma’s show, and the sniggers grew louder as she danced. We were just being shitty boys, largely out of awkwardness and because we thought taking the piss was cool, but Emma was visibly upset by our thoughtless reaction.”
He admits he felt like a “bit of a dick, and rightly so,” and that the memory is still “so painful for me to recall.” While he claims he apologized and Watson accepted, the incident stuck with him for a decade, proving the massive emotional damage inflicted by a stupid, childish act. The actor is trying to frame it as “just a stupid, teenage act of thoughtlessness,” but the reality is he actively made his co-star cry on set.
Insiders suggest that this kind of dismissive “boy humor” was rampant on the set, creating a challenging environment for Watson, who was the only girl surrounded by the main trio of boys and their friends. Her vulnerability was exposed and exploited.
He called her dance show “shitty” and made her cry when she was ? That’s not a crush, that’s pure bullying. Felton needs to stop calling it ‘awkwardness’ and start calling it what it was: cruel.
THE IRONIC CRUSH: HERMIONE LOVED HER BULLY
The ultimate scandal is the massive romantic irony that unfolded years later. Despite Felton’s cruel treatment, Watson later confessed that she had a massive childhood crush on her co-star throughout the filming of the first two Harry Potter movies. She was secretly crushing on the boy who was making her cry!
While those feelings have thankfully “waned,” the admission makes the bullying even more heartbreaking. Watson was desperately trying to impress the very person who was laughing at her. This emotional trauma formed the strange, complex foundation of their lifelong friendship, which Watson claims is still close, with the two “hanging out frequently to catch up.”
The relationship remains deeply complicated: a confessed bully and his victim, who was secretly in love with him, now remaining close friends despite the massive emotional history. It’s a Hollywood dynamic that is ripe for a therapy session.
THE POST-POTTER PRESSURE COOKER
Felton’s book reinforces that the young cast felt an intense divide, which was the direct result of being thrust into a massive, box-office-shattering franchise. The Harry Potter film series generated over $. billion at the box office, creating instant, immense pressure on actors with “little to no credits.”
The internal “house divide” was a coping mechanism for dealing with that pressure, leading the Slytherin group to adopt a falsely “cooler” persona—a persona that gave them license to be cruel. Felton’s regret proves that the pressure of the massive franchise led to unhealthy, childish behaviors that left permanent emotional scars on the young stars.
Despite the initial trauma, the main cast eventually became close friends and still maintain contact, often sharing photos and updates—a true testament to the unique, shared experience that transcended the early, toxic behavior.
CLIFFHANGER: WHAT ELSE IS IN THE MEMOIR?
Tom Felton’s memoir just blew up the polite narrative of the Harry Potter set, confirming that the divide between the characters was real, and it led to Emma Watson being publicly humiliated and deeply upset. His decade of guilt is a heavy price to pay for a childish laugh.
But if this is the level of emotional trauma that Felton is confessing, what other set secrets are buried in the memoir? Did the “Slytherin” group bully Rupert Grint, too? Did Daniel Radcliffe ever stand up for Watson? We’re waiting for the next shocking excerpt to confirm that the Harry Potter set was less magic and more mayhem!
