He smiled warmly. "Nothing wrong with a bit of string-pulling," he said, his tone suggesting agreement - as though he'd just been talking about how he pulled a few strings to get here himself. "Hogwarts is a truly wonderful place to be - at any age. It's no wonder the old students are pushing to get back in to teach!" he said before he chuckled a bit.
He realized that he was half assuming that she had been a student here, and really didn't know if she had been or not. He sipped lightly at his wine before he felt compelled to make a big deal out of apologizing for any possible offence she might have taken to that.