The model to relaunch Playboy as a nude magazine again started her career at Hogwarts, it has emerged. 

Scarlett Byrne was 19 when she made her silver screen debut as Pansy Parkinson, a fellow pupil of Harry, Ron and Hermione in the sixth Hogwarts film, Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince. 

A student of house Slytherin, Parkinson supported the side of Lord Voldemort during her last years at Hogwarts, even turning Harry over to the dark wizard during the Battle of Hogwarts. Byrne has since gone on to take roles on a variety of TV roles, including a regular part in teen supernatural series The Vampire Diaries. 

On Tuesday, however, she announced her latest career move by posting a semi-naked portrait of herself to her Instagram page, explaining in the caption that she was "very proud to be a part of the March/April issue of Playboy". The issue is the first to feature fully nude portraits after the magazine removed nudity last year.

The actress thanked Cooper Hefner "for such a unique opportunity". Hefner is the youngest son of Playboy founder Hugh, and, at 25, is the Chief Creative Founder of the magazine. He is also Byrne's fiancé: the pair shared news of their engagement in August 2015.

The Hefner heir is a regular feature on Byrne's Instagram account. The pair spent the festive season at the Playboy Mansion and she regularly posts selfies of the couple online. 

Byrne added that she had "penned a short essay along with my pictorial titled The Feminist Mystique". Alongside the post she released a statement expanding on her decision to do the shoot: "I’ll be the first to admit that the way in which the magazine portrayed nudity was dated, but removing it entirely was a mistake. Nudity was never the problem because nudity isn’t a problem. Today we’re taking our identity back and reclaiming who we are.”