Dumbledore's Age

[Laura Lynn Walsh]

No: HPFGUIDX 155000

In the very first book, on Dumbledore's chocolate frog
card, it says:  Professor Dumbledore is particularly
famous for ...  ...for the discovery of the twelve uses of
dragon's blood and his work on alchemy with his
partner, Nicolas Flamel.

Dumbledore is usually considered to be around 180
years old during these stories.  But if Nicolas Flamel
is 600 some years, he must have discovered the
Sorcerer's/Philosopher's Stone when he was around
150 years old - or else he would have already been
dead by the time Dumbledore was born.  So, Flamel
couldn't have been working with Dumbledore on
the Stone.  We have two choices:  either Dumbledore
is as old as Flamel or they worked on something else
together.

If DD and Flamel worked on something different,
what might it have been?  It must have been something
important, as Flamel had most likely been retired by
the time DD was born, let alone by the time he would
have been old enough to be a worthy partner.  It couldn't
have been dragon's blood, or that would have been
written up a bit differently on the card.  It must have
had something to do with alchemy.  Anybody know
more about alchemy's goals other than changing base
metals to gold?

The thing that makes it unlikely that DD is as old as
Flamel is that, when we see the younger DD in the
pensieve, he has auburn hair.  If he were as old as
Flamel, he would have already had white or gray
hair by then and wouldn't have looked noticeably
younger.

Sorry if this has been resolved already.
Laura
-- 
Laura Lynn Walsh    lwalsh at acsalaska.net
http://llwcontemplations.blogspot.com