Her year-long romance with financier Jay Barrymore is reportedly "on/off," but Emma insists that they've actually been consistently together, and that "the only reason it's 'on/off' is because the papers make up so much rubbish!"

Much of her performance in The Half-Blood Prince focuses on Hermione's not-quite-budding romance with her buddy Ron—"At the beginning," Emma says, "it looks like they're on their way to finally being together, but of course Ron screws it up. So she's jealous, and doesn't quite realize it, and they have all these arguments."

Perhaps that's because she's still not 100 percent sure she even wants to be a movie star when she grows up. "There's not, like, a burning passion in me," she admits, "that I have to act and I don't care what I do. Until something comes along that I feel as strongly about as I did Hermione—like, I felt that it was life or death—I don't want to act again."

Instead she'll study English Literature and art, though exactly where, she won't say. (Cambridge, Brown, and Yale are all heavily favored by the Internet rumor mill, but given her insane popularity in the U.K. and the overly aggressive paparazzi, it's likely she'll end up in the States.) "I just want to keep it private for as long as I can," she explains. "I probably sound like a paranoid nut, but I'm doing this because I want to be normal. I really want anonymity." Emma even intends to live with a roommate in the freshman dorms, a decision which Dan Radcliffe told her was crazy. "But I want to do it properly, like everyone else. As long as I don't walk in," she adds jokingly, "and see, like, Harry Potter posters everywhere, I'll be fine."