It’s Emma Watson’s day! The Harry Potter actress just turned 31 years old this Thursday, making it the perfect opportunity for her friends, family, and fans to reminisce about their best times with the star. Of course, our favorite thing to think back on when it comes to Watson is her role as Hermione Granger in J.K. Rowling’s Wizarding World. It’s leviosa, not leviosar, people! To ring in Watson‘s special day, her co-star and longtime friend Tom Felton shared a super cute throwback of the pair.
Although their characters were from warring houses and seldom saw eye to eye, in real life, Emma Watson and Tom Felton have remained pals. The 33-year-old Draco Malfoy actor shared this adorable photo to wish her a happy birthday:
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Whoa, they were babies! It looks like this picture was taken in the real early days considering a movie poster from 2002’s Scooby-Doo The Movie is peeking out behind them. They must have been in the first or second movie of the franchise, putting Emma Watson at about 12 and Tom Felton at about 14. It’s super sweet that the pair can say they’ve been friends for about two decades now. They’re like childhood best friends – it’s just too cute!
It’s no secret that Tom Felton was young Emma Watson’s first crush, but the pair never seemed to surpass their status as best friends since the meeting. When the actress previously spoke about it, she called it a “terrible crush” that was unrequited by Tom Felton who saw her in a “sisterly way.” Here’s what she admitted back in 2012:
“Between the ages of 10 and 12, I had a really terrible crush on Tom Felton. We love a bad guy and he was a few years older and he had a skateboard. And that just did it, really. He used to do tricks on it. He was so cool.”
Awww! What’s cuter than the budding feelings Emma Watson had for the actor as a young girl is how it has bloomed into a lifelong friendship over the years into adulthood and into their 30s. A couple of years ago, Tom Felton posted this photo on Instagram that had him teaching his Harry Potter co-star the guitar in their pajamas:
![](https://emma-w.org/wp-content/uploads/2021/04/throwback_em_guitar_lesson-300x224.jpg)
It’s great to see the pair keeping in touch, as Emma Watson has reportedly found a partner in Leo Robinton, and the rest of the cast continues to settle down with families. Rupert Grint recently welcomed his first child, Wednesday, back in November, and another member of the Harry Potter family is also now expecting.