10 Things We Learned From The Wholesome AF ‘Harry Potter’ Reunion

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While we move into 2022 with some trepidation, in good news the Harry Potter 20th Anniversary: Return To Hogwarts special dropped on January 1 and it’s the wholesome viewing we all desperately needed.

From cast secrets to nostalgic flashbacks and unseen footage, the reunion brought back all the magic from the wizarding world and had us longing for a time where the most exciting thing in life was eagerly awaiting the release of a new Harry Potter book or movie. Those were the days.

Here’s everything we learned after watching the Harry Potter Reunion.

harry potter reunion

1. Emma Watson had a huge crush on Tom Felton.

Dramione fans, rejoice! Emma Watson admitted having a crush on Tom Felton after they’d been given an assignment from an on-set tutor to draw what ‘God looked like’. “Tom had drawn a girl with a backward cap on a skateboard,” Watson said. “And I just don’t know how to say it — I just fell in love with him.”

As for Tom Felton, he had this to say.”I’ve always had a soft spot for her and it continues to this day,” he said. “There’s always been something like a kinship.”

Watson also talked about how they could both be vulnerable with each other but clarified nothing romantic had ever happened between the pair. “We just love each other,” she said.

Uhhh, OK, can they just get married already?

2. Emma Watson admitted to nearly quitting the franchise.

Fame hit all the young cast hard, and Watson said it made her nearly quit the franchise after Goblet of Fire, with Rupert Grint also agreeing that things got intense. “I did find a diary entry that was kind of like…I could see that at times I was lonely. I think I was scared,” Watson said.

Daniel Radcliffe also echoed similar sentiments. “We never talked about it on the film because we were all just kids,” he said.

Watson credited fans and the crew to helping her push through.  “The fans genuinely wanted it to succeed. And we all genuinely have each other’s backs, how great is that?” she said.

3. Daniel Radcliffe’s parents nearly stopped him from auditioning as Harry Potter.

After a tough search for Harry Potter, the director of the first two films, Chris Columbus, watched David Copperfield which starred a young Radcliffe and knew he had found his Harry Potter.

Radcliffe’s parents were absolutely not about him auditioning for Harry Potter, concerned about the pressure and fame it would bring. Eventually, they were convinced to bring him in for an audition and the rest is history.

4. Jason Isaac who played Lucius Malfoy originally auditioned for Gilderoy Lockhart.

Not wanting to be typecast as a villain, Jason Isaac had auditioned for Gilderoy Lockhart before being asked to audition for Lucius. “I’m convinced I ended up playing Lucius because I didn’t want to,” he said. “I read through gritted teeth, I was deeply bitter.”

Which, of course, worked extremely well for the character of the senior Malfoy.

5. And Jason Isaac once accidentally injured Tom Felton on set.

Isaac also shared the story of how he accidentally hurt a young Tom Felton while filming one of their first scenes together.

“Draco touched something, and I used this cane to hit him away,” Isaac said. “I didn’t know how sharp the teeth were, and they went right into little Tom’s hands. He looked up to me, eyes welled with tears, and I said ‘Tom, I’m sorry, I didn’t realise how sharp it was.’ And he went, ‘It’s alright, it’s good for the scene.’”

6. Emma Watson said kissing Rupert Grint was one of the hardest things she’s ever had to do.

In a savage but hilarious burn, Watson said the much-anticipated kiss between Hermione and Ron was one of the hardest things she’s ever had to do.

“I mean obviously us kissing was the most horrifying thing either of us has ever had to go through,” Watson said to Grint during the reunion, while he said he thinks he nearly “blacked out”.

“Kissing Rupert is one of the hardest things I ever had to do,” Watson continued. “It was so wrong on every level, because Dan, Rupert, and I are so much like siblings.”

7. Daniel Radcliffe once told Helena Bonham Carter that he wished he had been born “10 years earlier”.

Bonham Carter who played Bellatrix Lestrange recalled the autograph Daniel Radcliffe had written for her during their time on set.

“I do love you, and I just wish I’d been born 10 years earlier, I might have been within a chance. Lots of love and thanks for being cool,” Radcliffe wrote to Bonham Carter at the time, with Bonham Carter saying she’d always treasure it.

8. The cast were all eerily like their characters.

For Prisoner of Azkaban, director Alfonso Cuarón gave the star trio a homework assignment to write an essay in the voice of their character. Radcliffe wrote one page, Watson wrote 12 pages, and Grint decided not to hand anything in because he believed Ron wouldn’t have bothered.

“Rupert is Ron, 100%,” Cuarón said.

9. Richard Harris (who played Dumbledore in the first two movies) thought Fawkes the phoenix was a real bird.

Daniel Radcliffe and Chris Columbus had a laugh remembering the scenes Richard Harris shot with Fawkes the phoenix.

“You and I had one of our greatest laughs together with Richard Harris. We had an animatronic version of Fawkes the Phoenix… Richard came in and looked at the phoenix and said, ‘Wow they train these animals marvellously these days,” Columbus said to Radcliffe.

“We never told him,” Radcliffe laughed.

10. The cast still refers to themselves as family.

“We were never going to be doing this forever,” said Rupert Grint, while holding Watson’s hand as they both got teary.

“We’re family, we always will be. Even though we don’t see each other all the time, it’s a strong bond that we will always have. We will always be part of each other’s lives.”

BRB, gotta go have a big cry.

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You can stream the Harry Potter Reunion on Binge.