'Dear Harry,
Happy Christmas! I had planned on sending you this before Christmas, but your bird must've shown up while I was asleep, and didn't wait for me to add my own letter.
A way to send you mail without you writing first would be appreciated, wink wink. So, I hope you had a good Christmas and ball. The penknife I have included was given to me by my uncle Alphard, and in the tradition of my family, it's now yours.
I have yet to find a lock it cannot open and a simple tap will cause knots to animate and untie themselves. Honestly, it's a shame I never really ran into many locks or knots… at least until I got sent to Azkaban and left my penknife at home.
As for your question, becoming an Animagus did have some effect on my personality, same as your father. I wouldn't say I had a massive personality shift, it's more like my existing personality became slightly exaggerated. My sense of loyalty became stronger, but I also know I became a lot less patient.
Even when I wasn't Padfoot, I disliked sitting still for long and would go wild at the chance to run. James often had to stop me jumping off the walls between classes. Of course, James grew far more patient after becoming Prongs, we used to joke that he picked up the patience I left behind.
Despite that, I'm not sure I'd say my mind changed after becoming Padfoot… I guess it just helped unlock what was already there. Before we changed, I never would've placed James as a stag, but after he transformed it just felt right.
There are a few books I could recommend to your friend, but the only really helpful one was one James' ancestor wrote and never released…. But I think it might've been destroyed when the Potter Manor burned down.
I'll try and write down what I remember for a future letter, but my memory isn't the best with this type of thing.
Good luck for the 2nd task, if you need my help with anything, then I'm only a letter away. I believe in you.
- Sirius.'
"Hagrid wasn't at class today." Neville proclaimed as they entered the room. This had the unfortunate side effect of disturbing both Harry and Daphne, right as Harry was carving a rune.
For a brief minute, the runestone activated and began sucking in as much air as possible, choking all of them of oxygen. Moving quickly, Harry summoned his sabre and disintegrated the stone.
"What the bleeding hell was that?" Ron demanded, gasping for air.
"That was you disturbing us doing runes!" Daphne snapped back.
Frowning, Ron asked "What are you going to use that for, suffocating the opposition?"
"No you idiot, it's to allow Harry to breathe! If he wanted to attack the other champions, he'd just use a spell."
"Alright, calm down." Harry demanded, stepping into the argument. "The runestone wasn't finished, when it is air will pass through two stones like a breathing tube. Now, what was that about Hagrid?"
Despite pounding on the door and yelling for Hagrid to open the door, the hut remained closed to them. Frowning, Harry pressed his hand against the lock, trying to open it. To his confusion, the door still refused to open.
"We'll try again tomorrow, maybe he'll be willing to let us in then." Harry decided. Every day for a week Harry tried to talk to Hagrid, but was always ignored. It didn't help his mood that a few students kept bringing up Hagrid's article.
To pass the time until Hagrid let him in, Harry spent as much time as possible sitting on his doorstep, working on his runestones. Eventually, Daphne dragged him down to Hogsmeade.
He was surprised to see Ludo Bagman sitting with a bunch of grumpy goblins. Upon seeing him, the eyes of both Ludo and the goblins lit up. As Bagman tried to get up and make his way over, a goblin ducked under the table and began weaving through the crowd, shoving people out of the way as he moved.
"Lord Potter, it is a pleasure to meet you." The goblin said grandly, going so far as to bow deeply. It was an unheard of gesture, one which drew the eye of everyone nearby… or almost everyone as Ludo ambled over.
"Harry! How are you? Been hoping to run into you! Everything going alright?"
"Excuse us, wizard, I believe I was already talking to his lordship. You are already being held in contempt for your considerable debts, you would be wise to not exaggerate your grievances by attempting to befuddle Lord Potter." The goblin cut in coldly, making Bagman back off hesitantly.
Nodding in satisfaction, the goblin pulled over a barstool and stood on it, so that they were eye level. "Now, Lord Potter, I am Houvfoot Barclay, debt collector for Gringotts. Firstly, may I express my uttermost gratitude for your extremely generous contribution to our blessed nation.
"My sister was able to get a very lucrative job amongst the maker's guild, a position only available because of your contribution. Her position has gained our clan much wealth. If you need anything from the Houvfoot clan, you need only send us a letter."
"Oh… thank you? I'll certainly keep that in mind." Harry replied politely. "But, why would Bagman try to 'befuddle' me?"
Ludo looked like he was about to talk, only for Houvfoot to stare him into submission. "Ludovic Bagman has amassed several thousand Galleons in debt from Gringotts, obtained by his inept gambling habit. That is to say nothing of the dozens of wizards attempting to obtain their winnings from Ludovic's accounts.
"In an attempt to clear his debt, Ludovic has been attempting to take a 'double or nothing' bet on your Triwizard victory. What Ludovic fails to appreciate, is that we refuse to bet against a Lord such as yourself. He no doubt wants to trick you into letting him bet on you."
"Now come on now, I would never try to trick Harry here!" Bagman blustered. "I just thought he'd be a good sport and help a fellow out… And whatever happened to you not speaking English!"
"Lord Potter's support would make him liable for your losses. Given you have put forth your head as collateral, failure would be bad for Lord Potter's health." Houvfoot announced grimly.
"Right, well I'm sorry Mr. Bagman, but I'm not willing to risk my life any further. Particularly when I don't even know you that well. If you need to bet to make up for your losses, why not just bet on another champion? Now, I'm going to have a drink with my friends."
He turned around only to come face to face with one of the Weasley twins. The other twin had already stepped around them to talk to Bagman and Houvfoot.
"So, Bagman's in debt to the goblins eh? That'd explain why he doesn't want to pay us. Listen Harry, we're sorry for eavesdropping, but when we heard what you were talking about, we had to come over. We've had an interest in Bagman for a while now. It's a long shot, but do you think you'd be able to talk the goblins into helping us settle our bet with Bagman?"
"I don't think the goblins would listen to me on this. From the sounds of it, you're not the only ones he owes money to. How did you listen in, anyway? I didn't detect any listening charms."
"Oh, that. It's an experimental pranking aid we've been working on, we're calling it a 'Listen away' but the name isn't finalised. Its main thing is that it uses a bastardised Supersensory Charm, allowing the sound to carry through a protean link and out of the receiver." The twin explained passionately.
"A protean link? Would you mind coming and joining me and my friends for a bit, because I want to use a protean charm for the second task."
It turned out the Weasley twins knew quite a bit about runes, including the protean runes.
"You see, the trick is you need to consider them as two runes in one place, so everything needs to be linked twice to get the desired results. If you don't, then they get wacky and don't communicate properly. When that happens, it seems to be random with which side gets used." Fred explained, while his brother drew two runeschemes on some napkins.
With a flourish, George then tapped his wand against the left napkin, causing the right to glow brightly. Lifting his wand, Fred repeated the demonstration with the right runescheme.
"This is great, how did you learn this? Professor Babbling didn't mention anything about double linking." Daphne asked excitedly.
"Lots of trial and error, the same way we do most of our experiments. Like, we're trying to combine an animation potion and firework powder, but it always explodes instantly."
"Doesn't help a vanishing charm causes the entire mixture to multiply. Only made that mistake once!"
"Have you tried adding lavender clippings as you mix the powder into the potion? It should add a calming property, halting the explosion." Daphne suggested.
"We haven't, that might just work! Tell you what, how do you fancy coming down to our headquarters at some point? We'll help you with your runescheme and you'll help us with our potions." George prompted, holding out a hand for the girl to shake.
Out of habit, Harry tried to get into Hagrid's hut on the way up, only for the door to spring open under his unlocking charm. As the door burst open, Harry got a brief look at a startled Hagrid and smiling Dumbledore, before Fang dived into his arms and obscured his vision behind fur.
Stumbling while trying to keep his balance with Fang in his arms, Harry did his best to look around the giant dog.
"Good afternoon everyone." Dumbledore greeted amicably, "I see you were as desperate as myself to have Hagrid's company, although I personally find knocking to be the polite way of gaining entry."
"Sorry, professor. It's just Hagrid hasn't answered in a week and we wanted to prove to him we don't care what the papers say." Harry explained from behind Fang. He was doing his best to get Fang onto the floor, but the dog seemed content to stay in Harry's arms, while doing his best to cover the boy's face in slobber.
"Yes, I surmised as much. Why don't you all come in? I'll draw up some chairs for you all."
Harry waited for Daphne, Neville and Vincent to enter the hut before going over to Fang's bed and prying the dog off. Instantly Fang stood up and bounded over to Vincent, who obediently started petting him.
"Harry and his friends still seem to want to know you, judging by the way he broke the door down to get to you." Dumbledore told Hagrid.
"Of course we still want to know you! Why should it matter if you have a giantess for a mother, you're one of the most peaceful people I know." Harry exclaimed.
"I have never had a moment when I thought you were trying to hurt me, so why should that be any different now? If we had known the door was open, Luna, Ron, Draco, Colin, hell, even Fleur would all be here with us, telling you we still want to know you!"
At that, two fat tears leaked out of Hagrid's beetle-black eyes and fell slowly into his tangled beard.
Gently, Vincent stopped stroking Fang and laid a hand on Hagrid's shoulder, gripping it firmly.
"It isn't easy, being called a half creature. Just because my Great-Uncle was a troll, everyone thinks I'm this way because I have troll blood in me. I don't, but people say it anyway. My family is used to being treated like we're dumb, or that we are lesser than anyone else, and it hurts.
"But my mam said, 'Vincent, there will be those that will be mean. Accept that, and accept they are not worth your time. Never be ashamed of who you are.' An she was right. I was not ashamed of who I was, an' I was able to get third in our duelling tournament."
Hagrid looked up at that, fixing Vincent with a bleary gaze. "My ol' dad used ter say, 'Never be ashamed'... Yeh're right, Vincent, they aren' worth botherin' with. Thank yeh fer remindin' me o' tha'."
Things I Think need explaining:
- Hagrid's locked door: I couldn't find a good place to put it, and was getting too tired to work harder, but the reason Harry's unlocking charm failed was because Hagrid had placed something heavy against it. The unlocking charm was saying the door wasn't locked, because the physical bolt hadn't been pulled.
- Harry's strength: I won't be pointing it out any further, but when Harry was able to effortlessly carry Fang, that's a result of his strengthening ritual.