After eight movies-worth of magic spells, fiendish plots, diabolic nastiness and big ol’ butterbeer binges, Harry Potter is finally drawing to a close. It’s a moment to bring a touch of sadness to even the stoniest heart. The film’s three stars, Rupert Grint, Emma Watson and Daniel Radcliffe, mere whippersnappers when they began on The Philosopher’s Stone, are all growed up now and ready to move on to new challenges. Before they did just that, Empire was lucky enough to sit down with the three of them and ask them some questions tricky enough for Peter Pettigrew himself.

Name a spell and explain what it does.
Daniel Radcliffe: ‘Alohomora’ unlocks doors. That’s a vintage spell from the first film. After the fourth film, we barely used any spells except for ‘Expelliarmus’ and ‘Stupefy’. That’s pretty much it! For a good few films those are the only ones that the kids seemed to know. They always beat everyone, which was one of those mysteries for me.

Emma Watson: ‘Wingardium leviosa’ makes objects float or levitate.

Rupert Grint: Yeah, there’s ‘wingardium leviosa’. That’s always been a favourite. It levitates.

Have you ever had tea with JK Rowling?
Radcliffe: Umm, yes! I’m sure I have. I don’t know if it was tea but I certainly had dinner with her. I’m sure I’ve had Diet Coke with her in this room. So yes, I’ve had what qualifies as tea with JK.

Watson: I haven’t had tea with JK. I’ve had orange juice with JK. We had a nice chat in my dressing room and we went through a period where we were emailing, which was nice.…

The young actress on saying goodbye to Harry Potter, her future, how her new haircut has made her feel bolder, those Burberry ads and how she is addicted to learning.

How sad was it to say goodbye to Hermione?
It felt sad. She feels like an old friend of mine. So it does feel sad definitely.

Rupert was saying that he didn’t think that you will ever lose touch with each other. Is that something that you agree with?
Oh, I really hope that he never finds me again. No, of course. We grew up together. He’s practically like my brother. There’s no way that we’re losing touch.

Now that everything is completely finished, how do you feel? Liberated, completely sad?
Both. It’s very freeing on the one hand and very sad on the other. It’s both, bittersweet.

You’ve gone to university, obviously, do you imagine taking up acting in the future or are you just seeing what happens?
I just did a movie, finished something last week, “My Week With Marilyn”, which is exciting. No, I think I’ll just keep doing things. But my education is my number one priority at the moment and everything else comes around that really.

How are you enjoying that?
It’s wonderful. I love it. Really do.

How difficult is it to look at a so called normal life cause everybody knows who you are…
The grass is always greener. So for me never having really known a normal life, the idea of sitting around in my dorm having a glass of wine and some pizza is really exciting to me.…

Emma Watson sits in a posh London hotel, her slight frame encased in low-slung jeans. She is delicately pretty and preternaturally possessed for a 17-year-old, but then, she’s had a lot of practice. Watson has been world-famous since the age of 11, when she first appeared as the bossy miss know-it-all Hermione Granger, accomplice to the young wizard Harry Potter.

“It was the first audition I went on,” she says, still somehow surprised at the course her life has taken. “I had no idea of the scale of the film “the fame” or I would have been completely overwhelmed.”

The numbers are staggering. So far, J.K. Rowling’s six books about the wizards of Hogwarts have sold 325 million copies, and the four films have grossed $3.5 billion. With the July 11 release of Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix (the fifth film in the series) and the July 21 release of the long-awaited final book, those numbers will surely skyrocket.

With Hermione, Rowling has created an enduring role model for girls. “There are too many stupid girls in the media,” Watson observes, her dark eyes lighting up. “Hermione’s not scared to be clever. I think sometimes really smart girls dumb themselves down a bit, and that’s bad.” Watson admits that there is quite a lot of herself in the confident and bookish Hermione. “I’m a bit of a feminist,” she proclaims. “I’m very competitive and challenging.” Though she resented it at first, Watson has come to appreciate the emphasis on Hermione’s brains rather than her appearance.…

Growing up in a cult film series has left and indelible yet not life-defining impact on Emma Watson, Helen Barlow writes.

The greatest shock in seeing Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix is to notice how much the young actors have grown up. In fact, the fifth instalmnet is no longer a kids’ movie, but a teen drama about characters who are rapidly coming of age.

In real life the three prinipals are maturing faster than their characters, with Daniel Radcliffe even appearing nude on the London stage. Rupert Grint’s chest seems to be getting broaders and his voice deeper and deeper, while Emma Watson is broadening her mind and fashion sense and looking more womanly every day. She’s now on the covers of magazines, appearing very grown up indeed and, as with most things, she is asserting a level of control.

“In interviews lik this and when I’m working on Harry Potter I can dress myself, but the stylists on those shoots have strong views of what they want you to look like,” she says in London. “So sometimes it’s a bit of a battle between what they want you to be and what I really am, so I’m like, ‘Please take off the eyeliner’ or ‘Please don’t put me in those awful shoes’, or whatever it is.”

Does she think of herself as glamorous?

“I can be if I want to be. I love dressing up, but it doesn’t rule or dictate my life.”

Growing up in front of the cameras is never easy and being a part of one of the most successful franchises in film history has meant Watson’s life is not entirely her own.…

At the press conference for “Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix” in London, someone asks the main trio of actors whether there are any initiation rituals for the arrival of a new director. (Emma Watson says no.) It’s an interesting opening for a press conference that discusses so many things, first interviewing Rupert, Dan, and Emma, and later Michael Goldenberg, David Heyman, and David Yates, and which ends up delving into the darker elements of the fifth Harry Potter story. Despite so many diverse questions, there are recurrent themes; themes of love, friendship, and honesty.

Emma is asked about her deliberation over signing up for the sixth and seventh movies. She makes it clear, that like the character that she plays, learning is important. ‘I really want to go onto university’ she tells the audience, and reiterates how fortunate she is that Warner Brothers is so accommodating for her, arranging tutors for her on set, allowing her to go to school on Mondays, and even providing a service so that she can send work off to be marked over the weekends. She also confesses that she found the rumours surrounding the lack of immediate signing ‘frustrating and upsetting.’ Her love of learning was obviously tempered by her love for her character.

Daniel speaks of how they have all grown up with their characters and whilst he does not know whether ‘Harry as a character has influenced my character a lot,’ Emma tells us that ‘sometimes I feel I barely have to act,’ because she grew up with Hermione.…

Daniel Radcliffe, Emma Watson and Rupert Grint, the three leads at the heart of the Harry Potter series, return in the third instalment, The Prisoner Of Azkaban.

What was it like seeing your faces on the big screen?

Rupert: Yeah, it’s really weird seeing yourself on the big screen – it’s quite scary – but I’ve sort of got used to it now, it’s quite cool.

Daniel: I’ve never really liked watching myself that much. I saw the film with some of my friends and I was sitting in the front row of the cinema, and the last frame of the film is one of my face, and it looked like I was about to eat the front row of the audience. It’s kind of scary and a bit surreal, but I think we’ve all gotten used to it now.

How different was it working with Alfonso Cuarón compared to Chris Columbus?

Daniel: Everything we learned with Chris over two years – which was a lot – we now get a chance to put it into practice with another director. That was a challenge in itself, because we had to get used to someone else’s style, but it has helped us a lot to evolve or develop just making the transition.

Rupert: Yeah, it was a bit weird when we found out there was going to be a new director – we’d gotten really close to Chris, I was really used to him. But Alfonso was wicked, we had a really good time.…

Hermione and Ron move to the fore in the third ‘Harry Potter’ film, ready to make magic.

Leavesden Studios, England — It’s been almost three years since J.K. Rowling’s “Harry Potter” characters moved beyond the literary phenomenon and became part of a hugely successful movie franchise. In that time, the primary image associated with the films has been Daniel Radcliffe, playing the wholesome teen wizard Harry, with his trademark round glasses and his perpetual expression of faint surprise.

Well, things are about to change. Now it’s time for Harry’s sidekicks to grab a piece of the action. The third film in the series, “Harry Potter and the Prisoner of Azkaban” (it opens June 4), spreads the story much more evenly among Harry and his Hogwarts school pals Hermione Granger, played by Emma Watson, and Ron Weasley, portrayed by Rupert Grint.

Alfonso Cuaron, the Mexican director of “Prisoner of Azkaban” (he succeeded Chris Columbus, who directed the first two), notes: “Ron and Hermione are companions in adventure in this film, and they effectively drive the third act. It’s pretty amazing to see.”

There’s no question Watson is pleased with her contribution to “Prison of Azkaban,” even before she has seen it. She strolls into a room near the production offices, sits upright on a sofa with three embroidered cushions with a likeness of Harry Potter and an owl, and starts chatting.

“The third book is definitely my favorite, and it’s a good script for Hermione,” she says. “She has some great scenes.” There’s a split second in the trailer for the new film when Watson as Hermione apparently punches someone, then says: “That felt good!” And did it?…