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I apologize in advance if this is a common question, I searched for "flamel" here first and couldn't find the answer.

If Nicolas Flamel is several hundreds of years old, how did Dumbledore work on the Philosopher's Stone with him? Did he use it a bit himself?

To clarify, Flamel would've died without the PS, at a reasonable age -- so it can be assumed he made it about ~500 years ago. But I seem to recall the book saying that Dumbledore helped him make it. So either Dumbledore used the stone as well (unlikely it seems) or Flamel had already artificially extended his life, or Dumbledore is somehow hundreds of years old.

Am I remembering this incorrectly?

Thank you!

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2 Answers 2

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The simple fact is that although Dumbledore is known to have worked with Nicholas Flamel, there's no canon mention of Dumbledore working on the Philosopher's Stone;

"Professor Dumbledore is particularly famous for his defeat of the dark wizard Grindelwald in 1945, for the discovery of the twelve uses of dragon’s blood and his work on alchemy with his partner, Nicolas Flamel."

Although Flamel is known to be the only contemporary possessor of a quantity of the Stone, there are no reasons to assume that Dumbledore had any hand in creating the current (or past) batches.


As to whether Dumbledore has been using the Stone/Elixir of Life, there's a quote from JKR to indicate that while he's very old, there's no indication that his age is unnatural. On top of that, his brother is very much alive (and appears to be much the same age) which wouldn't be the case if his life had been extended artifically.

"Interviewer : How old is Prof. Dumbledore...

JKR: Dumbledore's about 150 years old... Wizards have a longer life expectancy than us Muggles...

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  • 1
    Thanks! That makes sense, I read it a loooong time ago. Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 18:59
  • @YungHummmma - blogs.itmedia.co.jp/katabami/images/2010/09/20/…
    – Valorum
    Commented Feb 21, 2014 at 19:04
  • See also scifi.stackexchange.com/q/11813/4918 which indicates that that last quote is now superceded, and Dumbledore died at the age of about 115 years.
    – b_jonas
    Commented Jun 3, 2015 at 10:44
  • This quote seems to be like they worked together on alchemy, not that they created a work on alchemy, meaning a book or whatever. But the German translation uses that meaning. Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 19:56
  • Translated from the German - "Professor Dumbledore's fame stems above all from his victory over the black magician Grindelwald in 1945, to the discovery of the Twelve Applications for Dragon's Blood and to his Alchemy work (Anwendungen für Drachenblut und auf seinem Werk über Alchemie) , written with his partner Nicolas Flamel. In his spare time, Professor Dumbledore likes to hear chamber music and play bowling." - I see nothing about him working with the Stone
    – Valorum
    Commented Aug 1, 2019 at 20:01
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The book doesn't say he helped create the first stone, it just says he did "alchemy work" with Nicholas Flamel. He could have been helping improve the stone, or, more likely, working on something else altogether.

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