Later—much later—when most of the students were asleep and the prefects were on patrol, he returned to the Great Hall.
He observed members of the 'Security Force' stationed at various points around the walls of the Great Hall and the house elves patiently waiting to receive more of their people. They had moved some of the tables near the portal and had laid down simple, but hearty meals on it, interspersed with what he recognized as potions vials. No doubt they contained some kind of restorative or nutritional properties; he remembered reading about how most everyone were still trying to wean themselves off of rations and various potions meant to keep you alert and aware—necessary during war but almost counterproductive in the troubled, but much less chaotic years that followed.
At that very moment, rainbow colors swirled in a maelstrom and lightning sparked, and the next group appeared.
He watched long enough to take a quick look at who came through—families, it seems like—but didn't bother to stay and introduce himself. He rather doubted they'd appreciate or trust him, lurking as he were, even if he was Headmaster of this school.
He turned around and walked back to his rooms.
He wasn't ready to go to sleep yet—a Headmaster's work is never done—but he thought he might take a break and read one of those potions journals that Severus sometimes sent him with certain articles marked, barely legible writing in the margins, wanting to know what his thoughts were on some new invention or another.
The next day he woke up to find himself face down on his desk, though he couldn't remember when that happened exactly, with the papers for a proposed combination Potions/Transfiguration Class stuck to his face. There were crushed bits of lemon sherbets peppered though his beard and what he recognized by smell alone—Ogden's Finest Whiskey—staining his robes all the way through to his nightgown.
The mirror-Dumbledore across from him in his private room looked him up and down in disapproval, tsking about the state of his attire and reminding him that he was about to be late for breakfast and the announcement he had yet to make by tapping on his watch.
'What time is it?'
Dumbledore glanced down at his own watch and stared for a minute in disbelief, and then moved the fastest he had done since his long-ago duel with Gellert and his first contact with the Remnant. He spelled himself clean, drunk a vial of Pepper-Up, changed into clean clothes and hurried to the Great Hall.
He was already ten minutes late, any later and he wouldn't be able to make up some excuse about being "fashionably late".
Professor Evans observed with no so small about of amusement Headmaster Dumbledore's late arrival. She noted with some satisfaction that he may have looked decent enough on the surface but if you looked further, it was easy to see the tell-tale signs of someone who had just woken up and had hurried to make it to breakfast.
She shook her head fondly. 'Only pudding could make Dumbledore rush to Breakfast, than wait to slip in unnoticed until the last moment and reveal himself, like Merlin—or Houdini—dispensing his 'words of wisdom' for the day…sometimes he even remembers to make the proper announcements.'
She could no more help the amused little smile on her face than she could passing her share of the pudding aside to the Headmaster, causing his eyes to twinkle brighter and give her a dopey smile in return.
'Honestly, you're such a child sometimes, Dumbledore.' And she let that thought slip from behind her mental shields, and sat straight and prim as any proper school marm, apparently only set on enjoying her light breakfast of buttered toast and sausage.
He, too, pretended as if he was focused only on the pudding before him and thought back to her, 'Aren't we all, my dear?'
She didn't bother to hide the roll of her eyes and gave a disdainful little sniff, as though this was all beneath her, though they both knew she enjoyed these little games more than she would ever admit. Sometimes, they were the only good things about her day—having to deal with students who thought they didn't need muggle studies or thought to prank her or simply didn't think a muggle had any right to teach in a magical school—well, let's just say that her classes often left her with a headache, if not the urge to wring the necks of those infuriating little snots.
She knew now why Severus had refused to teach ever again, even a single class, after that first disastrous summer session no one would speak to her about. He had given her enough details to frighten her about having to teach teenagers—though it didn't stop her still from going ahead with her plans and revamping Muggle Studies—but he never told her the whole story. Not even Dumbledore would tell her and that told her it was either very embarrassing for all the parties involved or it was so terrible no one wanted to scar her for life.
She bet it was the latter and Severus had simply forced them to vow secrecy, threatening to make them into potions ingredients if they so much as thought to betray him.
Yes, that was most likely the reason. Still. What were friends for, if not to laugh hysterically at the stupid things other friends did and share their own stupid stories? Heavens knew she had plenty of her own to tell. And a lot of her stories these days centered on the pranks her students played on her that she hadn't figured out in time, which she knew Severus would enjoy and thoroughly mock her for.
She considered the excited murmuring of the students sitting before her, not at all unsubtle in the way they kept glancing at the Head Table—even the Slytherins—for some kind of clue about the visitors. She amused herself with what the students would come up with in their quest to know what the visitors were really like and wondered how many of them had imagined savage, blood-thirsty killers or similar beings like the one that first came through, like that 'Hagrid'.
But reminded herself that she ought to hurry up an finish her breakfast so she had some time to go over the coursework before classes. It was always good to be prepared after all, especially when it came to her class.