So I had a strange thought today. My kids and I had just started re-reading the series and I saw Hagrid say that "young Sirius Black" lent him the flying motorcycle. It got me thinking, how old are all of the characters in the book? We know that Hagrid was at school, in his third year I believe, when the Chamber of Secrets was last opened, which was 50 years before the book CoS. Dumbledore was a professor back then. Sirius, James, Lupin, Pettigrew, Lily, and Snape are all roughly the same age. What about the other professors? Flitwick and McGonagall are the same age according to the info at Pottermore and Prof Sprout is two years different than them if I remember right.
I have always fallen into the trap of considering only two timeframes, the students and the adults, but I am really curious about this. What about the Weasleys? I would assume they are somewhat older than James, Lily, etc, given the ages of their children. Does Dumbledore have any living contemporaries? How old is he exactly? We know he was good friends with Elphias Doge and that he is older than Aberforth.
I'm sure there is more information out there. It would be really interesting to see a timeline of when each character entered into Hogwarts.
Any help would be appreciated.

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Scrimgeour turned a nasty purple color highly reminiscent of Uncle Vernon.
"I see you are-"
"Dumbledore's man through and through," said Harry. "That's right."

Pottermore:QuestMirror6922Wand:14.5in Spruce,Unicorn
myHogwarts:Luke&CJ Padfoot

Head on over the HP Lexicon (http://www.hp-lexicon.org) and look at http://www.hp-lexicon.org/wizards/weasley.html for the Weasley family. Poke around some more, and you can find birthdates for most folks.

This site is fantastic, and is the closest thing I know of to a Harry Potter Encyclopedia, until Jo gets done with hers.

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Can you provide the source for that?


ASU Sun Devil Quidditch fan, Ravenclaw
On Pottermore: MidnightMoonstone15, wielding a wand that's 10 and three-quarter inches, Fir, Unicorn core, Unyielding

The Lexicon Timeline is a GREAT resource for you. Happy hunting!

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"To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."

Pottermore: SkullJinx6748
House: Hufflepuff
Wand: 10.75", Redwood, Unicorn, Hard

Yeah! What Tabulation said! Just be warned that it's exhaustive in nature, so you'll have to guess and hunt to find the folks you want.

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Can you provide the source for that?


ASU Sun Devil Quidditch fan, Ravenclaw
On Pottermore: MidnightMoonstone15, wielding a wand that's 10 and three-quarter inches, Fir, Unicorn core, Unyielding

In Deathly Hallows, Chapter 16, Godric's Hollow we are given the birth and death dates of James and Lily Potter when Harry visits their graves.
"James Potter, born 27 March 1960, died 31 October 1981"
"Lily Potter, born 30 January 1960, died 31 October 1981" (Pg. 268, British Edition)

This would mean that James and Lily were 21 when they died. I assume that Sirius, Lupin and Snape are all the same age. Lily and James would have been 17 when they left school in 1977 and would have had Harry when they were about 20 (approx. 3 years after leaving Hogwarts). Harry goes to Hogwarts in 1991 at the age of 11 (assuming he is born in 1980). This means that Sirius, Lupin and Snape would all be 31 when Harry starts school.

As for Dumbledore, he does have some living contemporaries. Several come to mind, whom we meet in Deathly Hallows. Elphias Doge writes an obituary for Dumbledore after he has died (Deathly Hallows, pg 21-24, British Ed.) in which he reveals that he attended Hogwarts at the same time as Dumbledore. Bathilda Bagshot (author of A History of Magic) also lived in Godric's Hollow and remembers Dumbledore as a boy (presumably she is older than him). Ron's aunt Muriel also seems to know a lot about Dumbledore, and clearly knows Elphias Doge (Deathly Hallows, pg. 128, British Ed.). She is also fond of telling people she's 107. I assume Dumbledore and Elphias are around the same age.

As for the other professors, I have no idea how old are they are, but I assume most of them to be somewhere between Snape's age and Dumbledore's.

Hope that helps!

Edit: Also, I think it's stated somewhere in the books (I can't remember where) that Mr and Mrs Weasley are several years older than the Mauraders gang and may have even left Hogwarts before them. Which makes sense since they have older children like Bill and Charlie.

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Pottermore: MagicWild68 (Ravenclaw)
Wand: 10 3/4 inches, Fir, Phoenix Feather

+1 for taking the time to give an actual answer

_________________
"To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."

Pottermore: SkullJinx6748
House: Hufflepuff
Wand: 10.75", Redwood, Unicorn, Hard

Ok, all of the following information was found on the Harry Potter Wiki page. Assuming the events of the first chapter of SS/PS are taking place on November 1, 1981, you can calculate the ages using the following information:

Name - Birthday (Age as of Nov. 1, 1981)

Rubeus Hagrid - Born December 6, 1928 (52)
Albus Dumbledore - Born <Date Unknown>, 1881 (100)
Elphias Doge - Born <Date Unknown>, 1881 (100)
Aberforth Dumbledore - Born <Date Unknown>, 1884 (97)
Minerva McGonagall - Born October 4, 1935 (46)
Filius Flitwick - Born October 17, <Year Unknown> (Unknown)
Pomona Sprout - Born May 15, 1931 OR 1941 (50 or 40)
Molly Weasley - Born October 30, 1949 (32)
Arthur Weasley - Born February 6, 1950 (31)
James Potter - Born March 27, 1960 (21)
Lily Potter - Born January 30, 1960 (21)
Severus Snape - Born January 9, 1960 (21)
Remus Lupin - Born March 10, 1960 (21)
Sirius Black - Born <Date Unknown>, 1959 (22)
Peter Pettigrew - Born <Date Unknown>, 1960 (21)

That was the best I could gather quickly. Hope it helped!

Feel free to search any others at harrypotter.wikia.com

Thanks!

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Pottermore: MagicWild68 (Ravenclaw)
Wand: 10 3/4 inches, Fir, Phoenix Feather

Minerva McGonagall - Born October 4, 1935 (46)
Filius Flitwick - Born October 17, <Year Unknown> (Unknown)
Pomona Sprout - Born May 15, 1931 OR 1941 (50 or 40)

According to info on Pottermore I think Flitwick and McGonagall were in the same year at Hogwarts and it also said that McGonagall and Sprout were only two years apart which doesn't match this info. If McGonagall's date is right at 1935 then Sprout's would have to be within two years of that.

That's the kind of thing I'm talking about with this thread. I know all the various sites I could go to look up this stuff. I'm just not sure that they're accurate.

_________________
Scrimgeour turned a nasty purple color highly reminiscent of Uncle Vernon.
"I see you are-"
"Dumbledore's man through and through," said Harry. "That's right."

Pottermore:QuestMirror6922Wand:14.5in Spruce,Unicorn
myHogwarts:Luke&CJ Padfoot

I'm afraid all these sites are the best we're going to get until Jo's encyclopedia comes out, and possibly not even then. I think many years ago Jo was hesitant about putting a time stamp on her story; I can't recall the interview or any specifics, but I seem to remember something of this nature. Of course in the end she put some firm dates into the books which are the basis for a lot of the timeline work.

Anyway, The HP Lexicon and HP Wiki are my top two resources for fact checking and research until Jo releases something better. In my experience they are both very reliable based on what we know from the books and Jo's interviews.

_________________
"To the well-organised mind, death is but the next great adventure."

Pottermore: SkullJinx6748
House: Hufflepuff
Wand: 10.75", Redwood, Unicorn, Hard