Blinking his way into the kitchen, Draco needed a moment to orientate himself in the vast extense of Muggle high-tech. Only then did he remember that this was Astoria's apartment and not some sort of freakish nightmare. He sighed and stepped forward to rummage through various cupboards in search of tea and mugs.

After he had found what he needed and was happily in the process of boiling water (with magic of course, thank you), he heard a soft thud followed by a sharp knocking sound at the living room window.

"Tori?"

No reply. Wand at the ready, he carefully walked towards the window – Muggle surroundings still made him feel a bit nervous.

"What is it?" Astoria had appeared in the bedroom door, still wearing her pyjamas and hair looking like a pygmy nest.

Draco dropped his wand. "Oh. It's just your owl."

Opening the window with some embarrassment and a lot of relief, he watched Astoria's owl flying in gracefully, leaving a mess of parchment and paper on the window sill.

Astoria chuckled at Draco's unnerved look and escorted the tired looking bird to the fuelling station, as she called the place she kept all of the bird food.

Flipping briefly through the letters all directed to his girlfriend (bill, postcard from Daphne, bill, letter from the Ministry, bill), he settled for the Daily Prophet and went back to the kitchen.

At least that had been his plan. He never arrived there.

The headline of the newspaper seemed to glare at him in big, black letters, ink dripping with mockery.

Do Not Disturb! Ex-Deatheater Enters A Dangerous Liaison With Ministry Witch

What really made him grateful he hadn't had breakfast yet though was the photograph beneath that. It showed him and Astoria in the doorway of her apartment, kissing.

"Draco, tea is getting cold – are you all right?" The last bit was spoken in obvious alarm at seeing him standing in the middle of the room, eyes fixed on the Prophet and face as white...well, even whiter than a Malfoy!

Since he didn't answer, she joined him and clutched the paper from his hands when she realised who was on the picture.

"Merlin's beard! This can't be true!" She looked up at him as if pleading for contradiction.

Swallowing dry, he tried to comfort her by squeezing her shoulder. He got somewhat used to being ripped apart in public opinion, but she, naturally, was not.

"Let's see what it reads first," he proposed.

Draco Malfoy, as notorious for being the youngest recorded Deatheater as for being handsome in a sickly, vampiresque way, seems to have launched an attack to try and get back into the good books of wizarding society.

"He has every reason to, as everyone knows," Collins, Malfoy's estate-manager and long-time friend of the family agrees. "He had to sell Malfoy Manor last year, to finance his expensive pureblood lifestyle. Bought it for 30000 Galleons, which is quite a deal on my side, if you know what I mean."

Indeed, after his father, Lucius Malfoy, having been sent to Azkaban for the second time (and let's hope this time it's for good) and his mother, Narcissa Malfoy, having retreated from society into the shadows of an obscure family refuge (to her sister Andromeda Tonks, we informed), young Malfoy needs to grasp at straws to not be lynched on the streets.

Malfoy's talent to use other people to look good, seems to have developed early on. One of his former victims, a beautiful and humble young woman, tells us of her Hogwarts days with what she calls a dangerous sociopath.

"He made me go to the Yule Ball with him, because he knew that I was the most popular girl of our year," Pansy Parkinson reveals. "I didn't want to but he said he would spread the rumour that I was dating a mudblood if I wouldn't. I was so scared!"

His new victim goes by the name of Astoria Greengrass; a plain and obscure witch working for the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures (a second-rate department, as everyone knows). Our readers may wonder why Malfoy would choose her of all people to regain favours, but the key lies in her blood status.

"She's a half-blood, all right," her colleague and good friend Eliza Hughes, tells us. "Her mother's a Muggle, which is quite the surprise if you ask me, because her father was in Slytherin. There's something fishy about it, if you ask me."

Why a half-blood and not a muggle-born? You might rightly ask. While it may not be clear to us, dear reader, the author of this article is convinced that Mr Malfoy had a very good reason for choosing just this grey mouse. In any case he succeeded in getting what he wanted: attention.

The question now is: who will be his next victim? For what bigger plan will Miss Greengrass be the stepping stone?

An exclusive report for the Daily Prophet by Alexia Ashcombe.