Albus Dumbledore didn't think much of the odd taping noise. It was, after all, four in the morning on the first official day of school. Not to mention the fact that he had not slept a wink in the past twenty four hours, what with preparing the castle for the onslaught of students and finishing up the last of the paperwork before the term began.

It was entirely possible that Dumbledore was finally succumbing to the effects that come with a lack of sleep, and that the mysterious taping noise was his subconscious's way of informing him that if he didn't at least get two hours of sleep, the consequences would be dire.

He continued reading the forms in front of him.

Tap tap tap.

Dumbledore looked up this time, and let his twinkling eyes scan the room. Nothing seemed out of place. The old man rubbed his eyes, and then glanced at the elaborate clock that hung in the corner of the headmaster's office. He had, oh maybe ten minutes before he absolutely needed to go to bed in order to function properly for the rest of the day. Plenty of time to finish up these last few pieces of paperwork.

Tap tap tap.

"Come in." Dumbledore finally said after it became apparent that the tapping noise wasn't just his imagination. Perhaps someone was at the door. While nightly visits from the staff and students was uncommon, it was not completely unheard of.

Instead of the door opening, the old glass window to Dumbledore's right creaked open just a few inches.

Then, the tiny head of a tiny little girl poked out. Her eyes were wide and her pink pupils were larger than what would be considered normal. Her fluffy blonde hair was covered by a small bonnet made out of a white flower petal and a grass blade.

"Hello there little one," Dumbledore greeted with a warm smile "Please, come in, come in."

The little girl hesitated for a second before she hoisted herself up onto the window sill, streatched a beautiful pair of shimmering wings and hopped off of the edge. She plummeted downwards before her wings caught a current of air and she shot up. With a couple of flaps of her wings, she steadied herself.

"Is there anything I can do for you on this fine evening?" Dumbledore asked the fairy.

The fairy offered a small smile but shook her head and held slim finger to her mouth. She twirled around and with both hands grabbed the circular window frame and pulled it further open.

There was a silent moment in which the world stood still, and then suddenly

"BWHAAAAAA!" A small green ball came barreling through the open window before slamming into the opposite wall. It rebounded after the sickening crack, and rolled into the center of the room like a roly-poly. It uncoiled itself to reveal long furry ears, large feathery wings, and delicate paws. like a carefully crafted china doll, or a soft toy that was typically given to young infant. But this was no toy.

Dumbledore blinked. His first thought was that this was a partanous of some kind, but he quickly discarded that idea. For one thing, the animal was not accompanied by the white mist that danced in the air, nor was the animal able to pass through walls if the fact that it had to open a window to get in was anything to go by.

His second hypothesis was that it was perhaps some larger than usual magical mouse that had been blasted out of the forbidden forest by a much larger predator. The only problem with that theory was that the animal was a distinct pastel green color.

And there was the fact that it had wings.

That's when realization suddenly hit him.

A Flying Mint Bunny was in his office.

Dumbledore didn't think that there were any left.

"Hello there!" He said with as much cheer as an old man could possibly have, "what brings you to my office at this hour?"

The creature dusted itself off before it suddenly straightened up and saluted. "Professor Minty Kirkland reporting for duty, Sir!" It said in a very high and feminine voice.

It took Dumbledore a mere second to process that information. So this was the infamous Professor Kirkland that he was so fortunate to have picked up at such short notice.

Dumbledore will admit, it came as a complete surprise when her received an answer from the House of Kirkland. Typically, any letter sent to the Kirklands were either returned unopened or never seen again. He didn't even remember ever sending a letter to them, knowing full well what the response would be.

But two days after he sent the first wave of requests out to various historians across the country, a dignified owl perched on the window sill with a letter strapped to its leg with the Kirkland family crest engraved in red wax.

The Head of the Kirkland family had agreed to send one of their wards to take the place of Professor Binns.

"Ah, so you're the Professor Kirkland that I've heard so much about." Dumbledore gave a wary smile. "I must admit, your entrance was a little different then I expected. Please, have a seat." With a wave of his wand, Dumbledore wordlessly conjured up an over stuffed velvet chair.

Professor Kirkland gave a delighted little squeak and dropped into the chair with a dull thud.

"Just Minty is fine sir, or Professor Minty if you want to be formal. And sorry about the window thing. You see, I was coming in to fast and wasn't able to stop in time. Thankfully my little fairy friend over there," Minty jutted her head at the window where the fairy sat dangling her legs off of the window sill, "opened the window before I could crash into it."

"Oh my, it sounds like you had quite an adventure Professor Minty."

"Yes. I had to fly quite high in order to avoid the dementor's effects. And, well, let's just say that I did not expect gravity's pull to be that strong during my decent."

Dumbledore grimaced. The usual twinkle in his eyes vanishing. "I am very sorry about the Dementor's. They were most certainly not my idea. The Ministry however, thought that they were necessary to ward off Sirius Black..." He trailed off.

Professor Minty mirrored his look, "This whole business with Mr. Black is messy. But bringing in the guards from Azkaban to a school full of children seems counter productive. Mr. Black has already escaped from the Dementor's once before, so we know that he can bypass them. Wouldn't it be smarter to station Aurors instead? Aurors would actually be able to fight against Mr. Black should he show up at the school. If he attacks a student, then an Auror will be able to fight him off without causing much harm to the child. However if a dementor comes to the student's aid, then there is a very real possibility that the child will be kissed along with Mr. Black."

"Your logic is sound Professor Minty, and I am in complete agreement. Unfortunately, the Ministry's dead set on having the Dementor's here. I have tried to convince them that there are other methods of dealing with Black, but they Minister Fudge won't hear anything of it." Dumbledore said gravely.

"Bureaucracy suck." Professor Minty summed it up.

Dumbledore gave a curt nod in agreement. "Enough of this depressing topic. The Hogwarts staff is so happy to have you join us this year."

"Well, I'm already a day late, so I don't think I made a very good impression on my new students and co-workers." Professor Minty said sheepishly. " But I'm here now! I didn't want my students to miss out on their first History class of the year."

"How is that sick relative of your's? I do hope that they're ok."

"Oh yeah, Seamus is fine now. He just got. You know. Eaten."

Dumbledore stared at the winged bunny in shock, "Eaten, you say?"

"Yeaaaah, Old Nessie was having a mid life crisis and all of the pollution in her lake wasn't helping either. She was flopping around in the water and crying, and at some point she accidentally swallowed Seamus Kirkland. He was out fishing with his twin sister in a small boat."

"And how exactly was Nessie able to swallow Mr. Kirkland...?"

"She opened her mouth, flopped into the water and accidentally swallowed him."

Dumbledore stared at Professor Minty, and the Flying Mint Bunny took that as a cue to give a better explanation.

"Nessie is the Lockness Monster. She's a pretty big water dragon if I do say so myself. But I do pity her. There's so much trash and waste products in her lake that it's unbelievable. She tries so hard to keep it clean, but she can't keep up with all of the littering. Poor girl."

"That does sound serious. Are you sure you don't want stay with

Dumbledore's eyes sparkled. "It's so nice to see that you're already so dedicated to your students."

Minty chuckled. "Well, this is my first time teaching a group of students. Usually I tutor individuals from the Kirkland family. In fact, I was the one who tutored the current members of the House of Kirkland. But rest assured I can handle anything these kids through at me, no problem!"

Dumbledore nodded his head, and stroked his beard, "I assume that you have your lessons planned out already? Your first lesson is within a few hours."

"Mr. Headmaster sir, I am perfectly capable of teaching these students about both Magical and Muggle History. After all, I did live through most of the events in the curriculum." The green bunny said after she fluttered up out of the the conjured chair.

"Oh I don't doubt that you are lacking in the History field. Flying Mint Bunnies are known for their remarkable life spans. I believe that you'll be a fine addition to the staff here at Hogwarts."

Minty smiled and nodded "Thank you Headmaster."

"Please, call me Dumbledore my dear," He said. Then he pushed the crystal bowl of candy across his desk "Lemon Drop?"

"Thank you Dumbledore, that's very nice of you!" Minty reached out and plucked up one of the candies and popped it into her mouth.

The old wizard chuckled. "Not everyone seems to enjoy Lemon Drops these days. A pity, really. Professor Minty," Minty looked up, still sucking on the lemon drop, "There are a couple more forms that you need to fill out in order to finalized your position. Would you mind doing them now?"

Minty nodded and swallowed the candy whole. "Sure" she replied. Dumbledore opened a drawer in his desk and fished out a small stack of papers, and he handed them over to Professor Minty. Within five minutes she had finished her careful inspection of the final pieces of paperwork she needed to complete. She signed at the bottom and plopped it on Dumbledore's desk. Dumbledore then picked the paper up and vanished it with a bit of wandless Magic.

"Wonderful Professor Minty, do you have your things with you? We can move you into your living quarters right away." He said

"Yes, I do." Minty turned to the window and called out "Come on in, ladies!"

The window opened once more, and one by one a line of small glowing lights in a conga line floated into the room. Large wooden trunks and towering stacks of books floated on top of the dots of light. They danced around Minty like a lazy stream of water flowing down a spiral staircase,.

Fairies, Dumbledore realized as the little lights came into focus. They were fairies.

With flower petals for dresses and small delicate leafs folded into hats.

Finally, one pink dot broke formation and landed on top of Minty's head.

Minty sneezed but gave a delighted chirp "So, where am I going to be staying?" she asked Dumbledore.

"Ah, you will be staying in the room right beside the History classroom. If you need help locating it, just ask one of the portraits and they will help you get there." He said.

"Right Mr. Headmaster! Thank you!" And with that Minty spread out her mint colored wings and fluttered up into the air. With a little wave of her paw, she beckoned the train of fairies to follow her and they all glided through the doorway and out into the winding halls of Hogwarts.

Dumbledore stared at the now empty chair in front of his desk. With a wave of his hand, he banished it and leaned back.

He was going to need some firewhiskey before the night was done.

Author's Note:

Well, this chapter was hard to write. I think it's because this acts more as a filler chapter than anything else. Things are going to pick up in the next chapter, I promise! Sorry for such a late update though, I'm trying to work out a decent schedule for updating my stories and I'm thinking that I'll update this story every Sunday. (Or Wednesday depending on how things go)

Thank you thank you thank you so much for all of your support! I'm just completely speechless. You guys are amazing! We reached 1,000 views and I didn't think that was possible so quickly!

As usual, leave a review pretty please! It doesn't have to be super long, even a smiley face will do. And besides, reviews motivate me to post early!

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Snowy-Maplette