A few questions...

[hickengruendler]

No: HPFGUIDX 170325

--- In HPforGrownups at yahoogroups.com, "Alan Smithee...oh ok Rich 
Smith" <richardgomito at ...> wrote:
>
> Hello everyone, sorry if this is an oft-discussed topic.  I've gone 
back
> a little way and couldn't find any mention of it so I thought I 
would
> post.  I was wondering if anyone knew how old Dumbledore is/was?  
The reason I ask is that the answer would seem to be very old 
indeed!  He invents the Philosopher's Stone sometime before the start 
of the 20th
> Century and he is already an experienced teacher when Voldemort 
starts
> school, although one of the witches that examines Harry mentions 
that
> she also examined Dumbledore who could do things with a wand she had
> never seen before.  The reason I think this has me confused is that 
Flamel is hundreds of years old so it stands to reason that 
Dumbledore is too as he invented the stone with him, so unless Flamel 
had another way of keeping himself alive an unnatural length of time 
I can not see Dumbledore being any younger than a few hundred years 
old! Any answers?

Hickengruendler:

According to an interview given by JKR, Dumbledore is around 150. He 
did not invent the Philosopher's Stone with Flamel. They were friends 
and alchemical partners, but nowhere is it said that Dumbledore 
helped creating the stone. He just helped hiding it.
 
Rich:

> My other question is what happened to Harrys grandparents? Where 
are they? Are both sets dead? If so how old were Harrys parents when 
they died?
  
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Hickengruendler:

All dead. JKR said, she wanted Harry to grow up alone, therefore she 
disposed of all his grandparents before the story began. She said 
they died normal deaths, no Death Eater attacks or something. James 
and Lily were around 22, when they died, so very young.

Rich:

> And my final question is how do house elves appararate within 
school grounds when we know this is impossible? Or is it not really 
apparating, but some other form of magical transportation that only 
elves can do? Hope someone can help ease my mind of these ridiculous 
questions!

Hickengruendler:

They can, because they have different powers than the wizards, 
according to JKR. Some think this was a mistake from her, and she 
explaine dit away with this statement, but for me it does make sense, 
since the House-Elves have to do all the work/ cleaning the Common 
Rooms, so it would make sense that they can apparate.

By the way: www.accio-quote.org and www.jkrowling.com are two very 
good places to look for answers like this. The first one is an 
archive, where fans have collected all of JKR's statements about the 
series (that they found), the second one is JKR's website, where she 
answered a few of these questions.

Hickengruendler