EMMA Watson is sad to leave Hogwarts, after spending more than half her life making the Harry Potter films, but is relishing a return to normality - and university - as LUCY CARNE reports from London
FOR the first time in her life Emma Watson is going to do what she really wants to do -- her laundry.
"It's the little things that keep you sane," she says, giggling.
"My mother says to me, 'Just put the washing on, lay it out, just do these little things. You're not always going to be staying in Claridge's'.
"Insisting I walk to the end of the road and buy my own cereal makes me feel normal.
"I have to be able to readjust back into reality and it is those little things that make the difference."
The world's most famous 21-year-old actor has finally reached the finish line of the phenomenal Harry Potter saga.
After 12 years and eight films in the $6.4 billion series of the bestselling J.K Rowling books, Watson is allowed to come back to the real world.
There has never been anything quite like it in cinematic history - three sweet-faced unknown nine-year-olds, with almost no acting experience, are thrust into the spotlight to grow up in front of millions of adoring fans across the world.
From that time on Watson's life has been in a converted factory in Watford outside London.
Within the walls of the nondescript building, Watson was Hermione Granger, the wise and loyal best friend of boy wizard Harry Potter, living within a fantastical land of flying broomsticks, Hogwarts school of magic and battles with the Dark Lord Voldemort.
Now Watson just wants to lose herself in the ordinary life of a college dorm at Oxford. But she says it is a "bittersweet" experience to bid goodbye finally to her magical existence.
"It's been 12 years of my life and an amazing 12 years and change for anyone is scary," she says.
"At the same time it was really exciting for me to watch the last film and think wow, I've really learnt something.
"But I knew the ending was coming for a long time and I felt kind of numb.
"It was when they said 'that's a wrap for Emma' and the crew was clapping and it hit me like a steam train.
"It was in that moment that I really realised. That film studio was my childhood. That was where I grew up.
"I went to school there, I ate there, played there -- it was everything. It was my world. I am so sad to leave."
World premiere
It's the eve of the world premiere in London and it is clear Watson's life is still a whirlwind.
She is dressed in a stunning dusty-pink beaded Valentino dress. That, paired with her pixie hair cut and diamond earrings, makes her look like a stunning magical spirit from the 1920s.
Outside her London hotel the footpaths are filling.
Watson remains calm in the madness but her lips are tight and her eyes are strained.
In her face you can see she is questioning - will the pressure ever end?
It is a scene removed from Watson's very first day on set.
She can clearly recall slowly walking into the studio and being confronted by the steaming Hogwarts Express train.
It was a poignant first sight of the wild ride that lay ahead.
"That whole film went by in a flash because I was so pumped up on adrenalin, nerves and excitement," she says.
But despite her warm regards for her Potter past, Watson says she would be reluctant to let her own daughter go through the same ordeal.
"No, I probably wouldn't," she says.
"If I had a daughter and she really, really wanted to do it, then I would have to make sure I was with her.
"I wouldn't stop her doing anything she really wanted to do, but I would make sure she had the supportive family around her like I did. I was very fearful and there were times I was very anxious.
"When you sign on for something like this, and keep signing on, to a 10 and 11 year old, to imagine how you are going to spend the next 10 years of your life, making that kind of commitment seems really scary.
"You definitely have to find your voice. You have to say when enough is enough.
"Luckily, my parents brought me up to not be afraid to speak my mind and be honest.
"My mum has always said I've got grit, which has been very helpful."
Friends for life
Hovering over Watson and her co-stars Daniel Radcliffe (Harry Potter) and Rupert Grint (Ron Weasley) has been a constant expectation that they would crack under the pressure of being superstars at such a young age.
There is an obvious pattern - from Lindsay Lohan to Tatum O'Neal, Corey Feldman and Charlotte Church - for child stars to struggle and eventually derail.
The Harry Potter trio have surprised sceptics by emerging from the motion picture monolith grounded, intelligent and happy.
"You start working and are put under a lot of pressure when you are very young," Watson says.
"But the fact that we weren't part of Hollywood, we made these films in the same studio, with the same crew and same cast, we were very much in our own bubble.
"I wasn't aware of the film industry or even the media. We were in this abandoned warehouse in Watford in the middle of nowhere. It was a bubble that was very protective.
"I think we've all been lucky in that sense and that we've had each other.
"Very often there will be a child doing an adult movie on their own and they won't have that support."
There is an intense, almost sibling-like bond between Watson, Radcliffe and Grint. In online footage of the last day of filming for Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows: Part II, the trio gasp and are seen hugging.
A sobbing Radcliffe thanked his family, but Watson and Grint were too emotional to speak.
The trio plan to support each other for the rest of their lives, Watson says.
"When all of this dies down, maybe in a year or two years, that is when we will need each other the most," she explains.
Of the three stars, Watson seems to have been the most level-headed.
"I've had the most incredible opportunity and everything comes with a price.
"Fame was never something I ever aspired to and it's not something I aspire to now really.
"That side of things is not appealing to me, but it comes with doing what I love and I've had the most incredible experience.
"I wouldn't trade the fact I've been part of these films for anything."
