Emma's interview!

When Emma Watson arrived at Brown University last year, students reacted with giddy excitement—a bona fide movie star living in their midst!—that was tempered by a genuine desire to respect her privacy. But her fellow freshmen grew upwatching the Harry Potter movies, which starred Watson as Harry's pal Hermione Granger, and sometimes they simply couldn't restrain themselves. In one class, the professor asked students a question, and Watson raised her hand. Just like the fiercely smart, overachieving, always-right Hermione, Watson gave the correct answer. From the back of the room, one of her classmates called out,"Score 20 points for Gryffindor!" At Brown, Watson wasn't playing for Gryffindor—the fictional house where Harry and Hermionelived at the Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry—but she has found a real home. When we met for breakfast shortly before Watson began her sophomore year this past fall, she was eager to return to college life. "The first year at Brown was about finding my feet," she said."I found a great group of girlfriends, and now that I know how things work and what the professors expect, I'm really excited about going back for my second year, because I feel this time I can relax and enjoy it." Watson is deeply grateful for the way she's been treated by her peers. "Brown has a real sense of community, and people are very protective of me," she said. "They really look out for me; they want me to feel like I'm part of it. I threw my 20th birthday party at Brown, and I didn't even have to say to anyonenot to put pictures on Facebook. Not a single picture went up. That was when I knew I'd found a solid group of friends, and I felt like I belonged."