'Harry Potter' star Watson denies Brown bullying claims

Emma Watson, the British actress who plays Hermione Granger in the "Harry Potter" series, on Friday denied reports that she was bullied out of Brown University — an assertion backed up by fellow students who said that, if anything, she was shielded from being singled out. "The reason I took a semester off from Brown had nothing to do with bullying," Watson wrote on her website. "I have never been bullied in my life and certainly never at Brown."
Watson said she is not sure what her plans are for the fall semester, the beginning of her third year. Like many of her "fellow Brown students," she wrote, she is considering studying abroad.

Brown has not commented on media reports this month citing an anonymous Brown "insider" who claimed Watson was bullied out of school.

A New York Daily News article posted online April 21 claimed that when Watson responded correctly to questions in class, her classmates would shout, "Three points for Gryffindor!" — a reference to the "Harry Potter" films, in which students' dormitory houses are awarded points for questions they answer correctly. Watson's character lives in Gryffindor.
"This '10 points to Gryffindor' incident never even happened," wrote Watson, who has denied that rumor before. "Accusing Brown students of something as serious as bullying and this causing me to leave seems beyond unfair."
The rumor that a student had once exclaimed "10 points for Gryffindor" after Watson answered a question correctly became widespread on campus in spring 2010, the semester during which it was alleged to have happened.www.mannamart.com