She was caught, for a moment, off-guard, disarmed by his levity, his amicable warmth - precisely the kind of thing they warn about in training, the kind of thing they teach in training. She had never taken well to lessons on affecting familiarity, being of precisely the opposite instinct, only to those on detecting affectations... and yet, here, in the safe sanctuary of her home (might as well have been), she was charmed.
Only for a moment. And then all business once again.
"I'm sure you've seen the news, Professor. We have several - well - tenuous leads that we'd like to follow up on, and I believe that you and your partner may provide us with a different perspective than simple tests. A human perspective." She moved her head towards the door, a liquid movement before falling into step, expecting Dixon shortly. "Your partner's a tracker. But he's unruly. Aside from your ability to apparate - did I say that right? - I need someone with good instincts who knows how to stay calm in a crisis. Who knows how to keep someone on the right path." The sentiment was chosen carefully. She may not have known much about Dumbledore's story, but she knew where he'd been before the tesseract. And, more importantly, she knew why.