Alyssa did as what her head of house, Professor Hadley suggested, she was going to ask Professor Bellaire whether it would be possible for her to give her some private lessons in casting Charms. She did need to get her grade up to Outstanding if she wanted to be considered for Auror Training.

She stepped up to the mirror hanging outside Professor Bellaire's office and checked to make sure that her robe and clothing was clean and not rumpled. Then she checked to make sure that her hair still neatly tied back in a pony tail.

Once she was confident that she was presentable, Alyssa stepped up the door, scraped the bottom of her shoes against the mat, cleaning them before knocking on the door.

KNOCK! KNOCK!

Then she waited for the Professor to answer.

Papers were stacked and neat and graded and her work plan was set out for the afternoon session she had with the sixth years. One thing was for sure this term was flying by very quickly, which she didn't mind one bit mind you.

Sophia was thinking of just heading down to the staffroom for a bit when there was a knock on her door, which she responded too promptly.

"Miss Potter how may I help you?"

Papers were stacked and neat and graded and her work plan was set out for the afternoon session she had with the sixth years. One thing was for sure this term was flying by very quickly, which she didn't mind one bit mind you.

Sophia was thinking of just heading down to the staffroom for a bit when there was a knock on her door, which she responded too promptly.

"Miss Potter how may I help you?"

Alyssa quietly walked into the waiting area leading to the Professor Bellaire’s office. She had been searching for rooms and corridors where portraits would be located and now found herself here. She looked at the painting on the wall before walking up to it.

She reviewed from memory what Professor Scabior had said. The other entrance was only used in case of emergencies and so that was why it wasn’t in the most visited of places. Alyssa wondered why the Professor had paused before saying the word “visited.” Was that another hint? People walked back and forth through the many corridors in order to get to where they wanted to go. She guessed that most of the time, they were in such a hurry that they didn’t pause to stay and “visit” the portraits hanging in them.

She had skipped checking the portraits hanging in the Entrance Hall because although it would have been the best and quickest place to exit a building, it would also have been the most obvious. Besides, if the school was under attack, the entrance would have been the first place to be blocked. Secondly, it was just too close to the other room. It wouldn’t make sense to have an emergency secret passageway near each other.

So this was the last place that she knew of, that had a painting. Although Alyssa knew that this room was on the Third Floor and far away from the only visible way out of the building, it was still near enough to a fireplace…and the Floo Network….which would be another quick way to escape in case of an emergency. Apparating would be impossible for staff and students, unless the spells cast to prevent people from doing so now were removed. This waiting area was the only one that Alyssa remembered having a painting. She already knew that, except for some Professors, most of the others like Professor Bellaire didn’t get visited much by the students, unless it was for some counseling or to get some questions asked.

Professor Scabior had already confirmed that the painting wasn’t in the common rooms or inside the staff offices, but he didn’t say that it wasn’t outside them. She had eliminated going to the Hospital Wing when she had been told by a fellow student that there were no paintings in there, which was a great relief to hear.

So here she was. Making sure that she didn’t make too much noise and alert Professor Bellaire who might be in her office right now, Alyssa quickly stepped up to the portrait, took out her wand, and tilting her head back she gauged where the center of the canvas was. Keeping an eye on the center, she tapped her wand upwards startingfrom there three times…TAP…TAP…TAP…and then across two times…TAP…TAP.

Once Alyssa was done with the tapping sequence, she quickly turned away, left the waiting area and headed back down to the Great Hall. She didn’t wait to see whether the canvas had ripped, because firstly, she was almost out of time and had to report back to class, but mainly because she didn’t want to wait to get caught messing around with the Professor’s painting by the Professor herself, if she happened to be returning to her office or exiting it.