"Record?" I asked curiously.
"Oh yes. Albus was certainly not the first student I've taught the art of alchemy to. He was however the most gifted in the field. Many understand that he possesses great skill and power but that's all they see. They simply can't see the brilliant soul crushed and polished into it's current shape by a life filled with regret and self sacrifice." he said with a sad shake of his head.
"I don't know about a life of that but he has had his share of great burdens." I said with a nod.
I might not be able to fully agree with the old goat but I could at least somewhat empathize with him. His life might not have been all bad but the things that stood out were typically the same ones that were his greatest regrets. His sister, Grindelwald, his half brother, Voldemort and Harry. There were bright spots true but they were vastly overshadowed by the dark ones. The sheer fact he wasn't a grumpy old man who hid himself from the world was practically a miracle. Still I did sort of agree with Flammel, Dumbledore was clearly extremely talented but once he reached his current level of power he stagnated. Stopped trying to reach further.-
"He feels more deeply than most. Torments himself about it really. For most "what if" fantasies remain just that, fantasy. For Albus they are just more weights added to his regrets. Before he fought and imprisoned Grindelwald he was like a star in how brilliant he was. I remember it like it had just happened. The young man grappling with regret and ambition both at the same time. He was thoughtful, kind and blinding to witness. He picked up alchemy like he was born for it and soon enough he was even helping push some of the incomplete knowledge in the field even further." he said with a reminiscent smile.
"The uses of dragon blood right?" I asked and he chuckled.
"That was merely the tip of the iceberg. A sort of crowning achievement that earned the recognition of the rest of the world. I have a book recording it all actually, give me a moment to find it." he said as he started digging through the random junk all over the place while muttering to himself about swearing it was right there last time he saw it.
I would have helped if I wasn't absolutely certain that more than a little of the "junk" scattered about had not so friendly magical effects. Not outright dark magic but more like side effects that made even touching them a risk to life and limb. It was pretty damned impressive how even while carelessly digging through all this stuff Flammel passively avoided setting any of it off. He was so well versed with alchemy and dealing with his own hoard of objects that he could go through them on pure instinct.-
"Ah! Here we are!" he finally said as he produced a thin dragonhide bound journal with a mithril clasp sealing it.
"You used mithril, as a clasp?" I asked feeling my eye twitch at the sheer waste.
"Oh that? That's nothing special. Everyone knows the stone can create gold but it's often forgotten that it can create ANY precious metal. Not much point in worrying about mithril prices and rarity when I have an inexhaustible source of it." he said shrugging as he undid the clasp and laid out the journal on the nearby table.
I just sighed at what he said as he really wasn't wrong to think like that. Shaking my head to chase away the slight envy I felt I peered down at the contents of the journal. At first it looked like random observations written in short concise wording but as I got deeper into it a picture began to form. I could almost see a young Albus Dumbledore carefully taking different pieces from plants and magical beasts to examine and break down. He was clearly a life alchemist, a branch that focused on the manipulation and understanding of life itself.-
Each entry into the journal showed how he step by step categorized everything and moved on.
"Of all the fields of alchemy I would never have expected him of all people to focus on that one. Life alchemist have a terrible reputation for a reason." I said slightly stunned by this revelation.
"I thought the same once but as I've come to understand it Albus chose that path BECAUSE he valued life so much. He wanted to thoroughly know that his belief was right. It was pure passion and wholly selfish of him. That's what made it so precious." he said with a fond smile.
"It wasn't for the greater good." I said and he sighed.
"How I loathe that phrase. Greater good. Ha! A nice way of saying ruthless prioritization. Anything was acceptable so long as the end result was an overall positive one. A twisted justification for heinous actions." he said with the first flicker of darkness appearing from him since I met him.
"I won't try to justify what was done in the name of that phrase but the idea behind it is not entirely wrong. It's the trolley conundrum. You are on a trolley about to hit a split in the tracks. On one set of tracks several ordinary people sit helplessly. On the other a doctor, someone capable of great things sits alone and you have to choose which track the trolley goes onto and who dies as a result. It's a moral and logical choice. Morally it is better to let the doctor die as they are but a single person. Logically however it is better to let the ordinary people die as that doctor could do far more good than they could overall." I said and he slumped a little.