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orbemnews · 3 years

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Inflation Is Expected to Rise, but Don’t Be Alarmed: Live Updates Here’s what you need to know: When the government releases its latest consumer price inflation reading at 8:30 a.m. on Tuesday, Wall Street investors will be eagerly watching the data point, which is expected to jump starting this month. Inflation data matters because it gives an up-to-date snapshot of how much it costs Americans to buy the goods and services they regularly consume. And because the Federal Reserve is charged in part with keeping increases in prices contained, the data can influence its decisions — and those affect financial markets. But there’s a big reason not to read too much into the expected bounce in March and April — and it lies in so-called base effects. In March’s data, inflation is expected to rise substantially above 2 percent. March 2021 forecast: +2.5% PERCENT CHANGE IN CONSUMER PRICE INDEX FROM A YEAR AGO However, some of the jump can be explained through what’s known as base effects — prices fell significantly last spring, so the increase now from the year prior is larger, even if prices are not rising as dramatically. 2021 Consumer price index In March’s data, inflation is expected to rise substantially above 2 percent. March 2021 forecast: +2.5% PERCENT CHANGE IN CONSUMER PRICE INDEX FROM A YEAR AGO However, some of the jump can be explained through what’s known as base effects — prices fell significantly last spring, so the increase now from the year prior is larger, even if prices are not rising as dramatically. 2021 Consumer price index Consumer inflation is usually measured on a year-over-year basis. Statisticians take a bundle of goods and services Americans buy — everything from fresh fruit to apartment rent — and aggregate it into a price index. The inflation rate that is reported each month shows how much that index changed from one year to the next. For a quarter century, most measures of inflation have held at low levels. The Consumer Price Index moves around a bit because of volatile food and fuel prices, but a “core” index that strips out those factors has mostly come in shy of 2 percent. But the data reported for March and April may show something different because price indexes dropped sharply a year ago as the country went into lockdown and airlines slashed ticket costs, clothing stores discounted sweaters, and hotels saw occupancy plunge. That means inflation measures are about to lap super-low readings, and as that low base falls out, it will cause the year-over-year percent changes to jump — a little bit in March, and then a lot in April. To be sure, climbing prices could last for a while as businesses reopen, consumers spend down big pandemic savings and producers scramble to keep up with demand. Economists and Federal Reserve officials do not expect those increases to persist for more than a few months, but if they did, it would matter to consumers and investors alike. But a bump in prices isn’t the kind of demand-driven inflation that would prompt the Fed to lift interest rates or slow bond buying in a bid to control prices. March’s figures are most likely just a mathematical quirk. A Grab food delivery rider in Singapore.Credit…Wallace Woon/EPA, via Shutterstock Grab — a ride-hailing company, bank and food delivery business all rolled into one — is set to make its debut in the largest offering by a Southeast Asian company on a U.S. stock exchange. The company, which is based in Singapore, announced a deal on Tuesday with Altimeter Growth, a company listed for the sole purpose of buying a business. These special purpose acquisition vehicles, or SPACs, have snapped up companies over the past year at a rapid-fire pace. But this deal, which values Grab at roughly $39.6 billion, is expected to the largest such deal to date. Grab shares will trade on the Nasdaq stock exchange The deal also includes an investment of more than $4 billion from a group that includes BlackRock, T. Rowe Price Associates and Temasek. Altimeter Capital Management, the investment firm backing the vehicle acquiring Grab, has agreed to hold certain shares in the company for at least three years. Grab offers a “super app” that allows users to order food, pay bills and hail a car. It’s a model already popular in China, where WeChat offers a range of services, but is growing in Southeast Asia, particularly as the region builds its digital businesses. The pandemic helped propel the trend forward, with Southeast Asian consumers spending more than $10 billion online last year. Grab acquired Uber’s Southeast Asia operations in 2018 and a digital banking license as part of a consortium in 2020. It has attracted investors including Booking Holdings, Hyundai, Microsoft, SoftBank and Toyota. The company is going public as deal-making is flourishing in Southeast Asia. Bain, the consulting firm, said in 2018 it expected that the region would have had at least 10 unicorns, or start-ups valued at $1 billion or more, by 2024. One of those, the e-commerce company Sea, went public in the United States in 2017. Shares of the company have risen more than 400 percent over the past year, giving it a market capitalization of $125 billion. “It gives us immense pride to represent Southeast Asia in the global public markets,” Grab’s chief executive, Anthony Tan, said in a statement. “This is a milestone in our journey to open up access for everyone to benefit from the digital economy.” Greensill Capital’s offices in Warrington, England. Since Greensill’s collapse, Credit Suisse has paid $4.8 billion to investors in its funds.Credit…Oli Scarff/Agence France-Presse — Getty Images Credit Suisse said it would be able to pay back additional money to investors in funds whose troubles were among a series of disasters that have battered the Swiss bank’s reputation and finances. The bank said it would pay an additional $1.7 billion to investors in funds linked to Greensill Capital, which collapsed last month. The latest payment means that investors will get back close to half of their money, with the prospect for more payments as Credit Suisse liquidates the funds. Credit Suisse’s asset management unit oversaw $10 billion in funds put together by Greensill based on financing it provided to companies, many of which had low credit ratings or were not rated at all. “There is potential for recovery in these cases although clearly there is a considerable degree of uncertainty as to the amounts that ultimately will be distributed to investors,” Credit Suisse said in a statement. The more money that Credit Suisse can salvage from the funds, the better its chances of repairing its reputation and its ability to attract new customers. The bank has been in crisis following a series of debacles, including its disclosure last week that it will lose almost $5 billion because of money it lent to Archegos Capital Management, which crumbled this month after a high-risk stock market play went sour. Including the $1.7 billion payment announced Tuesday, Credit Suisse has paid $4.8 billion to investors in the Greensill funds. The bank said it would take legal action to recover more money and “is engaging directly with potentially delinquent obligors and other creditors.” Some losses may be covered by insurance. “We remain acutely aware of the uncertainty that the wind-down process creates for those of our clients who are invested in the funds,” Credit Suisse said. “We are doing everything that we can to provide them with clarity, to work through issues as they arise and, ultimately, to return cash to them.” China has ordered 34 of its most prominent internet companies to ensure their compliance with antimonopoly rules within the next month and to submit to official inspections thereafter — with “severe punishment” promised for any illegal practices that are uncovered. The demand, which China’s market regulator announced on Tuesday, represents the government’s latest cracking of the whip in its campaign to tighten supervision over giant internet platforms. For years, Beijing gave internet companies wide berth to grow rich and innovate. But in China, as in the West, concerns have been growing about the ways the companies use their clout to edge out rivals, their use and abuse of algorithms and big data, and their acquisitions of smaller peers. China in recent months has begun using both regulatory enforcement actions and public shaming to keep tech companies in check. The country’s market regulator imposed a record $2.8 billion antitrust fine on Alibaba, the e-commerce titan, on Saturday. And on Monday, Alibaba’s fintech sister company, Ant Group, unveiled a revamp of its business in response to government demands. Officials from China’s market watchdog, internet regulator and tax authority met with the companies on Tuesday, according to the government’s statement. At the meeting, the officials “affirmed the positive role of the platform economy” but also told the companies to “give full play to the cautionary example of the Alibaba case.” The nearly three dozen companies included almost all of the top names in the Chinese internet industry, from established titans like Alibaba, Tencent and Baidu to newer powerhouses such as TikTok’s parent, ByteDance; the food delivery giant Meituan; the e-commerce site Pinduoduo; and the video platform Kuaishou. At Tuesday’s meeting, the companies were told to strengthen their “sense of responsibility” and to “put the nation’s interests first,” the regulator’s statement said. The stock market’s rally during the pandemic has been nothing short of amazing. But rising interest rates are raising the question of how long this bull market can last. In the 12 months through March, the average general stock mutual fund tracked by Morningstar returned nearly 66 percent — a remarkable rebound after a three-month loss of nearly 22 percent at the start of last year. The turnaround came after the Federal Reserve stepped in with support for financial markets and the economy, fueling much of the stock market’s exuberance with low interest rates. But with the economy taking off, rates have begun to rise. At the start of a new quarter, it is a good moment to ask, how long can these strangely prosperous times last? My crystal ball is no clearer now than it has ever been, alas, and I can’t time the market’s movements any better than anyone else. But this certainly is a good time to assess whether you are well-positioned for a possible downward shift. As always, the best approach for long-term investors is to set up a portfolio with a reasonable, diversified asset allocation of stocks and bonds and then live with it, come what may. Our quarterly report on investing is intended to help. If you haven’t been an investor before, we’ve included tips on how to get started. Here you will find broad coverage of recent trends, guidance for the future and reflections on personal finance in a challenging era. An Uneasy Exuberance in the Stock Market It’s been a long, fine run for the stock market, but a great deal of the upswing has depended on low interest rates, and in the bond market rates have been rising. Investment strategists are taking a wide array of approaches to deal with this difficult problem. For now, the bull market rides on. Finding Safety Through Global Diversity Bonds provide ballast in diversified portfolios, damping the swings of the stock market and sometimes providing solid returns. Because bond yields have been rising — and yields and prices move in opposite directions — bond returns have been suffering lately. But adding a diversified selection of international bonds to domestic holdings can reduce the risk in the bond side of your investments. It’s Not Really All That Complicated Yes, the markets and the economy are complicated. That often puts people off, and stops them from taking action that can help them and their families immeasurably: investing. But investing need not be complicated. A succinct article gives pointers on how to get started, and on how to navigate the markets for the long haul. NFTs Are Great, but the Real Money Is in Dollars After a piece of virtual art known as a nonfungible token — an NFT — sold at auction for $70 million recently, NFTs have suddenly became an asset that you can invest in. Our columnist prefers real dollars. Fossil Fuel Prices Recovered, but for How Long? Short-term demand for oil and gas is rising, but if climate change is to be reversed, consumption of fossil fuels will have to diminish. This leaves investors in a tough spot. The owner of the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood and 15 other movie theaters said it would not reopen after the pandemic.Credit…Kate Warren for The New York Times ArcLight Cinemas, a beloved chain of movie theaters based in Los Angeles, including the Cinerama Dome in Hollywood, will permanently close all its locations, Pacific Theaters announced on Monday, after the pandemic decimated the cinema business. ArcLight’s locations in and around Hollywood have played host to many a movie premiere, in addition to being favorite spots for moviegoers seeking out blockbusters and prestige titles. They are operated by Pacific Theaters, which also manages a handful of theaters under the Pacific name, and are owned by Decurion. “After shutting our doors more than a year ago, today we must share the difficult and sad news that Pacific will not be reopening its ArcLight Cinemas and Pacific Theaters locations,” the company said in a statement. “This was not the outcome anyone wanted,” it added, “but despite a huge effort that exhausted all potential options, the company does not have a viable way forward.” Between the Pacific and ArcLight brands, the company owned 16 theaters and more than 300 screens. The movie theater business has been hit particularly hard by the pandemic. But in recent weeks, the majority of the country’s largest theater chains, including AMC and Regal Cinemas, have reopened in anticipation of the slate of Hollywood films that have been put back on the calendar, many after repeated delays because of pandemic restrictions. A touch of optimism is even in the air as a result of the Warner Bros. movie “Godzilla vs. Kong,” which has generated some $70 million in box office receipts since opening over Easter weekend. Still, the industry’s trade organization, the National Association of Theater Owners, has long warned that the punishing closures were most likely to affect smaller regional players like ArcLight and Pacific. In March, the Alamo Drafthouse Cinema chain, which operates about 40 locations across the country, announced that it had filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection but would keep most of its locations operational while it restructured. That does not seem to be the case for Pacific Theaters, which, according to two people with knowledge of the matter, fired its entire staff on Monday. The reaction to ArcLight’s closing around Hollywood has been emotional, including an outpouring on Twitter. Devastating. Too many losses to process. It’s just too much… At some point when I’m less upset, I’ll tell you guys a funny story about my first time meeting Quentin Tarantino in the lobby of Hollywood Arclight. https://t.co/cFypJxEk4L — Lulu Wang (@thumbelulu) April 13, 2021 “The First Amendment does not provide the Fox defendants a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Smartmatic’s lawyer, J. Erik Connolly, wrote in a brief.Credit…Eduardo Munoz/Reuters The election technology company Smartmatic pushed back on Monday against Fox News’s argument that it had covered the aftermath of the 2020 presidential election responsibly, stating that Fox anchors had played along as guests pushed election-related conspiracy theories. “The First Amendment does not provide the Fox defendants a get-out-of-jail-free card,” Smartmatic’s lawyer, J. Erik Connolly, wrote in a brief filed in New York State Supreme Court. “The Fox defendants do not get a do-over with their reporting now that they have been sued.” The brief came in response to motions filed by Fox Corporation and three current and former Fox hosts — Maria Bartiromo, Jeanine Pirro and Lou Dobbs — to dismiss a Smartmatic lawsuit accusing them of defamation. Smartmatic and another company, Dominion Voting Systems, became the focus of baseless conspiracy theories after the Nov. 4 election that they had manipulated vote totals in contested states. Those conspiracy theories were pushed by Rudolph W. Giuliani and Sidney Powell, serving as personal lawyers to former President Donald J. Trump, on Fox News, Mr. Trump’s longtime network of choice. Smartmatic, which says that the conspiracy theories destroyed its reputation and its business, provided election technology in only one county during the election. Last month, Dominion also sued Fox News. Together, the two suits represent a billion-dollar challenge to the Fox empire, which, after Smartmatic filed its lawsuit, canceled the Fox Business program hosted by Mr. Dobbs. “The filing only confirms our view that the suit is meritless and Fox News covered the election in the highest tradition of the First Amendment,” the network said in a statement late Monday. Fox’s motion, as well as those of its anchors, argued that the mentions of Smartmatic were part of its reporting on a newsworthy event that it was duty-bound to cover: A president’s refusal to concede an election and his insistence that his opponent’s victory was not legitimate. But the response Smartmatic filed on Monday, which runs for 120 pages, said that argument amounted to wishful thinking and that Fox had not covered the claims about Smartmatic objectively or fairly. “The Fox defendants wedded themselves to Giuliani and Powell during their programs,” the brief said. “They cannot distance themselves now.” Fox will have several weeks to respond to the brief, and a judge will eventually consider whether to allow Smartmatic’s case to proceed. The death of 20-year-old Daunte Wright prompted protests in Brooklyn Center, Minn.Credit…Aaron Nesheim for The New York Times Reporters from multiple local organizations were denied entry to a news conference on Monday about the shooting of Daunte Wright, whose death at the hands of a police officer in Minnesota has set off protests. Mr. Wright, 20-year-old Black man, was killed by the officer on Sunday during a traffic stop in Brooklyn Center, Minn., a suburb of Minneapolis. As national and international media flooded in, Brooklyn Center officials organized a news conference for Monday to address the shooting and release body-camera video. Andy Mannix, a federal courts reporter for The Star Tribune, the largest newspaper in Minnesota, said on Twitter that he and his colleagues were denied access to the news conference while he watched national and international media be let in. Suki Dardarian, a senior managing editor of The Star Tribune, said in an email that the paper had sent three journalists to the news conference. Two were denied entry, while one, a videojournalist, was able to get in, she said. A spokeswoman for Minnesota Public Radio said that credentialed M.P.R. journalists also were not granted access. An article in The Star Tribune said journalists from the Minnesota Reformer, a nonprofit newsroom, were also denied. Ms. Dardarian said local media should be allowed to attend police news conferences and ask questions. “We were offered no explanation for why the reporter and photographer were not allowed in (as well as some other local journalists), except for someone saying the room was full,” Ms. Dardarian said. “Our videojournalist observed that there was still space in the room.” “The chief indicated in his remarks that he is committed to transparency,” she said. “We believe that should include allowing the local media to attend a press conference to which they were invited — and agreeing to answer our questions following his statement.” Dan Shelley, the executive director of Radio Television Digital News Association, a national industry group, said local journalists should be included in news conferences because they are part of the communities on which they’re reporting. “If you have a genuine desire to be transparent, why would you exclude local journalists from a news conference?” Mr. Shelley said. The city of Brooklyn Center and the city’s police department did not respond to requests for comment. Source link Orbem News #Alarmed #Dont #expected #Inflation #Live #Rise #Updates

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nectaroffices · 7 months

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opticien2-0 · 4 years

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Superdry, Monsoon and INTU at “most at risk of collapse due to COVID-19” trader warns

Superdry: one of a number of retailers under increasing threat?

Analysis of more than 20 of the UK’s businesses with existing historic problems such as a lack of consumer confidence, underinvestment and the inability to adapt digitally, has revealed that Superdry and Monsoon Accessorize, along with shopping centre owner INTU could all fall victim to lockdown economics.

The study, by stock market and Forex traders platform AskTraders, fears that, as online sales have struggled for both retailers it could mean that the nation-wide shut down due to COVID-19 serves as a final blow for these two businesses. For INTU, rent reductions could also force it to fail.

Next, M&S, Ted Baker and Debenhams are all likely to survive the current situation, while Thorntons, WHSmith and Office are deemed ‘certain’ to live to fight another day.

According to AskTraders senior market analyst Nigel Frith, Superdry is most at risk. “Shares are down 11.69% and it is seeking additional financing to secure a recovery. Online sales are likely to slump and so it will struggle to survive,” he says.

Of Next and M&S, Frith says that “Prior to [Coronavirus pandemic], Next’s sales had been up 14% online, but as it seeks a buyer for Next HQ in order to raise the cash to protect its stores and with it having stopped online sales, the retailer has a 50/50 chance of survival. M&S, meanwhile, has reduced investment and delayed staff pay rises, so it could survive the impact COVID-19 has had on trading. However, as its share price drops down to 50% so far this year, could Coronavirus finish it off?”

Debenhams, meanwhile, will be “lucky to make it through the effects Coronavirus is having on our economy, although a rent break may help in the short term as the age of the department store seems to be ending”, says Frith.

More positively, Frith says that “with 40% of stores still open, WHSmith may be able to ride this epidemic out with immediate rebounds in sales as normality resumes”.

In the wider economy

Looking more widely at the High Street, Frith predicts that the next high street brand to go under will be restaurant chain Frankie & Benny’s, as its parent company, The Restaurant Group, shrinks its brands down to just Wagamamas.

“Closures of Franky & Benny and Chiquito will be speeded up, with these two likely to disappear completely, because they hit it the crisis in a bad position to start with,” he says. “There is still a future for Wagamama on UK high street sales were strong there prior to lock down,so Wagamama is likely to bounce back.”

Poole high-street set to be the worst hit

Previous research by AskTraders on the demise of the high-street revealed which 20 towns in the UK had a struggling retail sector. The analysis used open data on closures of ATM’s retail stores and banks to reveal which town had been hit the hardest.

This research now shows which UK towns are going to be the ones struggling the most due to COVID-19 lockdown impacting store closures and the rest of the high-street. The data revealed that Poole is the home to the most declining high street in the UK followed by Blackpool and Warrington.

from InternetRetailing https://ift.tt/3aTm88B via IFTTT

#Retail 2.0

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bigyack-com · 4 years

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How Small Physician Practices are Struggling to Survive During Coronavirus Pandemic

Autumn Road in Little Rock, Ark., is the type of doctor’s practice that has been around long enough to be treating the grandchildren of its eldest patients.For 50 years, the group has been seeing families like Kelli Rutledge’s. A technician for a nearby ophthalmology practice, she has been going to Autumn Road for two decades.The group’s four doctors and two nurse practitioners quickly adapted to the coronavirus pandemic, sharply cutting back clinic hours and switching to virtual visits to keep patients and staff safe.When Kelli, 54, and her husband, Travis, 56, developed symptoms of Covid-19, the couple drove to the group’s office and spoke to the nurse practitioner over the phone. “She documented all of our symptoms,” Ms. Rutledge said. They were swabbed from their car.While the practice was never a big moneymaker, its revenues have plummeted. The number of patients seen daily by providers has dropped to half its average of 120. The practice’s payments from March and April are down about $150,000, or roughly 40 percent.“That won’t pay the light bulb or the rent,” said Tabitha Childers, the administrator of the practice, which recently laid off 12 people.While there are no hard numbers, there are signs that many small groups are barely hanging on. Across the country, only half of primary care doctor practices say they have enough cash to stay open for the next four weeks, according to one study, and many are already laying off or furloughing workers.“The situation facing front-line physicians is dire,” three physician associations representing more than 260,000 doctors, wrote to the secretary of health and human services, Alex M. Azar II, at the end of April. “Obstetrician-gynecologists, pediatricians, and family physicians are facing dramatic financial challenges leading to substantial layoffs and even practice closures.”By another estimate, as many as 60,000 physicians in family medicine may no longer be working in their practices by June because of the pandemic.The faltering doctors’ groups reflect part of a broader decline in health care alongside the nation’s economic downturn. As people put off medical appointments and everything from hip replacements to routine mammograms, health spending dropped an annualized rate of 18 percent in the first three months of the year, according to recent federal data.While Congress has rushed to send tens of billions of dollars to the hospitals reporting large losses and passed legislation to send even more, small physician practices in medicine’s least profitable fields like primary care and pediatrics are struggling to stay afloat. “They don’t have any wiggle room,” said Dr. Lisa Bielamowicz, a co-founder of Gist Healthcare, a consulting firm.None of the money allocated by lawmakers has been specifically targeted to the nation’s doctors, although the latest bill set aside funds for community health centers. Some funds were also set aside for small businesses, which would include many doctors’ practices, but many have faced the same frustration as other owners in finding themselves shut out of much of the funding available.Federal officials have taken some steps to help small practices, including advancing Medicare payments and reimbursing doctors for virtual visits. But most of the relief has gone to the big hospital and physician groups. “We have to pay special attention to these independent primary care practices, and we’re not paying special attention to them,” said Dr. Farzad Mostashari, a former health official in the Obama administration, whose company, Aledade, works with practices like Autumn Road.“The hospitals are getting massive bailouts,” said Dr. Christopher Crow, the president of Catalyst Health Network in Texas. “They’ve really left out primary care, really all the independent physicians,” he said.“Here’s the scary thing — as these practices start to break down and go bankrupt, we could have more consolidation among the health care systems,” Dr. Crow said. That concerns health economists, who say the steady rise in costs is linked to the clout these big hospital networks wield with private insurers to charge high prices.While the pandemic has wreaked widespread havoc across the economy, shuttering restaurants and department stores and throwing tens of millions of Americans out of work, doctors play an essential role in the health of the public. In addition to treating coronavirus patients who would otherwise show up at the hospital, they are caring for people with chronic diseases like diabetes and asthma.Keeping these practices open is not about protecting the doctors’ livelihoods, said Michael Chernew, a health policy professor at Harvard Medical School. “I worry about how well these practices will be able to shoulder the financial burden to be able to meet the health care needs people have,” he said.“If practices close down, you lose access to a point of care,” said Dr. Chernew, who was one of the authors of a new analysis published by the Commonwealth Fund that found doctor’s visits dropped by about 60 percent from mid-March to mid-April. The researchers used visit data from clients of a technology firm, Phreesia.Nearly 30 percent of the visits were virtual as doctors rushed to offer telemedicine as the safest alternative for their staff and patients. “It’s remarkable how quickly it was embraced,” said Dr. Ateev Mehrotra, a hospitalist and associate professor of health policy at Harvard Medical School, who was also involved in the study. But even with virtual visits, patient interaction was significantly lower.Almost half of primary care practices have laid off or furloughed employees, said Rebecca Etz, an associate professor of family medicine at Virginia Commonwealth University and co-director of the Larry A. Green Center, which is surveying doctors with the Primary Care Collaborative, a nonprofit group. Many practices said they did not know if they had enough cash to stay open for the next month.Pediatricians, which are among the lowest paid of the medical specialties, could be among the hardest hit. Federal officials used last year’s payments under the Medicare program to determine which groups should get the initial $30 billion in funds. Because pediatricians don’t generally treat Medicare patients, they were not compensated for the decline in visits as parents chose not to take their children to the doctor and skipped their regular checkups.“This virus has the potential to essentially put pediatricians out of business across the country,” said Dr. Susan Sirota, a pediatrician in Chicago who leads a network of a dozen pediatric practices in the area. “Our waiting rooms are like ghost towns,” she said.Pediatricians have also ordered tens of thousands of dollars on vaccines for their patients at a time when vaccine rates have plunged because of the pandemic, and they are now working with the manufacturers to delay payments for at least a time. “We don’t have the cash flow to pay them,” said Dr. Susan Kressly, a pediatrician in Warrington, Pa.Even those practices that quickly ramped up their use of telemedicine are troubled. In Albany, Ga., a community that was an unexpected hot spot for the virus, Dr. Charles Gebhardt, a doctor who is treating some infected patients, rapidly converted his practice to doing nearly everything virtually. Dr. Gebhardt also works with Aledade to care for Medicare patients.But the telemedicine visits are about twice as long as a typical office visit, Dr. Gebhardt said. Instead of seeing 25 patients a day, he may see eight. “We will quickly go broke at this rate,” he said.Although he said the small-business loans and advance Medicare payments are “a Godsend, and they will help us survive the next few months,” he also said practices like his need to go back to seeing patients in person if they are to remain viable. Medicare will no longer be advancing payments to providers, and many of the small-business funding represents a short-term fix.While Medicare and some private insurers are covering virtual visits, which would include telephone calls, doctors say the payments do not make up for the lost revenue from tests and procedures that help them stay in business. “Telehealth is not the panacea and does not make up for all the financial losses,” said Dr. Patrice Harris, the president of the American Medical Association.To keep the practices open, Dr. Mostashari and others propose doctors who treat Medicare and Medicaid patients receive a flat fee per person.Even more worrisome, doctors’ groups may not be delivering care to those who need it, said Dr. Mehrotra, the Harvard researcher, because the practices are relying on patients to get in touch rather than reaching out.Some doctors are already voicing concerns about patients who do not have access to a cellphone or computer or may not be adept at working with telemed apps. “Not every family has access to the technology to connect with us the right way,” said Dr. Kressly, who said the transition to virtual care “is making disparities worse.”Some patients may also still prefer traditional office visits. While the Rutledges appreciated the need for virtual visits, Kelli said there was less time to “talk about other things.”“Telehealth is more inclined to be about strictly what you are there for,” she said.Private equity firms and large hospital systems are already eying many of these practices in hopes of buying them, said Paul D. Vanchiere, a consultant who advises pediatric practices.“The vultures are circling here,” he said. “They know these practices are going to have financial hardship.” Read the full article

#Coronavirus #health #HealthNews #Pandemic #Physician #Practices #small #struggling #Survive

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levadedd · 7 years

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Five Awesome Lessons You Can Learn From Studying The roofing Industry.

How to Choose a Contractor for a New Roof Installation in Milwaukee, Wisconsin – Home Improvment Ideas http://homeimprovmentideas.com/2017/10/04/choose-contractor-new-roof-installation-milwaukee-wisconsin/ …

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jonestowers · 7 years

Text

Teenage Bishops, part twenty six

In a room at the top of Clarence House, three bishops met in private. While they had naturally attended the synod meeting the previous morning, none of them had so much as spoken a word during it, preferring not to draw attention to themselves. Here, in a private meeting arranged with no written or electronic communication, they could discuss things in private.

The Bishop of Warrington leaned back in his chair and dangled a pair of spectacles from his right hand. The cup of Earl Grey on the table in front of him steamed and outside he could just about hear vague military noises coming from Horseguards’ Parade. Looking at his colleagues around the table, he felt a frisson of fear. The three of them, he said to himself, were all that stood between the church they had served all their adult lives and total oblivion.

‘Gentlemen’ he began ‘I need hardly say to you that we find ourselves in extraordinary times. I had thought, during the course of the past tumultuous year that I had seen everything that life could throw at our venerable institution. It turns out I was wrong. From juvenile delinquents debasing our great offices of divinity, to any Tom, Dick or Harry suddenly being able to have a say in matters which they neither understand or have any business in, to that detestable individual profaning the sacred memory of one of our most venerable saints for personal gain, I am shocked anew every day by the depravity of what is happening to our church and, by extension, our country.’

The two other men at the table nodded sagely.

‘It all started with women vicars’ said the Bishop of Crewe & Alsager.

‘Oh, further back than that’ said the Bishop of Ely. ‘When church on Sunday stopped being a matter of social expectation and started becoming an issue of…conviction.’

‘True, true’ said the Bishop of Warrington, delicately dipping a piece of shortbread in his tea and taking a bite. ‘We are here, however, to discuss the future.’

‘You believe we have one?’ asked the Bishop of Ely gloomily.

‘We could have’ said the Bishop of Warrington carefully. ‘We could have.’

‘Go on’ said the Bishop of Crewe & Alsatger with mild irritability. He tired easily of his brother bishop’s love of mystery and intrigue.

‘Do you remember the meeting yesterday morning?’ asked the Bishop of Warrington.

‘No it’s completely left my mind’ said the Bishop of Crewe & Alsager with heavy sarcasm. ‘No, of course we haven’t. Get on with it.’

‘I am not referring to the theatrics and ballyhooing’ said the Bishop of Warrington acidly. ‘You remember the first item on the agenda?’

Two faces looked at him blankly from the other side of the table.

‘The…apologies?’ hazarded the Bishop of Ely.

‘No, not the apologies’ replied Bishop of Warrington with an elaborate display of patience. ‘Our visitor? Our…American brother in faith?’

‘That televangelist fellow?’ asked the Bishop of Crewe & Alsager. ‘Bit of a low-rent sort.’

‘Haven’t we got enough of that kind of thing already’ said the Bishop of Ely ‘What with that bloody woman up in Pontefract or wherever it is healing people left right and centre?’

‘She was on the news last night’ added the Bishop of Crewe & Alsager. ‘Maria Swift, her name is. Wouldn’t be interviewed but they still did a whole bit about her. I think…’

‘If I may continue’ cut in the Bishop of Warrington ‘I have received ...intimations from a colleague known to us all that the Reverend Buckley may be in a position to do us some…service.’

The other Bishops leaned forward in their chairs. They had not been men of the cloth for over a century between them without learning a few things about euphemism.

‘While it is undeniably true’ the Bishop of Warrington began ‘that Reverend Buckley’s ministry is conducted largely via the medium of the cathode ray tube, it should not be thought any the less real for that. His regular viewers in the United States alone number, I am told, in excess of thirty eight million.’

The Bishop of Ely shifted in his seat. He had not come here to hear encomia to televangelists he barely even knew.

‘Jolly good. Well done him. And?’

‘If you would allow me to continue;’ said the Bishop of Warrington equably ‘while the popular perception of television-based ministry is that of a product of the nineteen eighties, with old ladies sending in five dollar bills to cure their rheumatism, in the modern age it is a very different thing. For example, did you know that religious donations account for almost thirty five per cent of all online transactions in the United States? And that, of those transactions, Reverend Buckley’s church receives sixty seven per cent?’

The Bishop waited while his two colleagues attempted to digest these figures.

‘So you see’ he continued ‘The United Church of God is a very much greater concern than we had previously imagined. And a very much richer one.’

At these words the expressions on the faces of the other three bishops changed to ones of rapt attention. The financial travails of the church were a longstanding source of woe to them all.

‘Richer, you say?’ said the Bishop of Crewe & Alsager, with a hopeless attempt at sounding casual.

‘Absolutely’ said the Bishop of Warrington. ‘And I am talking here about cash reserves. Not like us.’

‘I wish people would stop saying we’re a rich church’ complained the Bishop of Ely, voicing a thought they had all voiced many times before. ‘Why can’t people realise that owning a lot – ok, an awful lot – of property isn’t the same as being rich. If you own it, you’ve got to maintain it, and staff it.’

‘And property’s only worth anything if you can sell it’ joined in the Bishop of Crewe & Alsager with gloomy relish. ‘That’s what they don’t understand. All these buildings, the cathedrals and palaces and suchforth, they might show up on our asset balance sheet, but it’s not like we can sell them off, if is?’

‘Synod’d never buy it’ confirmed the Bishop of Ely.

‘If we might return to the matter in hand’ said the Bishop of Warrington icily. ‘The matter of cash reserves. The rolling, bottomless, literally swimmable-in cash reserves of the United Church of God. Reserves which would, one imagines, become commonly-held stock in the event of a formal merger.’

The three of them contemplated this in silence for a while. The Bishop of Ely broke the silence.

‘And what does he get out of it?’ he asked.

‘The name’ said the Bishop of Warrington simply. ‘He gets to rebrand the United Church of God as the Church of England. He’s done something called ‘market research’ and apparently our American brethren are terribly keen on that kind of thing.’

‘And that’s it? He’s going to split a vast fortune with us just so he can say his tinpot…’

‘Young, vibrant and bracingly unconventional’ corrected the Bishop of Warrington.

‘…church can say it’s part of the Church of England?’

‘Basically, yes. Along with our centuries of experience and spiritual unimpeachability. Also, to return to recent regrettable events, it must not be forgotten that our Church has never been in sorer need of a friend than at this time.’

The other bishops nodded.

‘So what’s the plan?’ asked the Bishop of Crewe & Alsager.

‘There’s a formal luncheon tomorrow’ said the Bishop of Warrington. ‘The usual kind of thing; three line whip for all of synod to attend. It’s billed as a celebration of the new understanding between our two churches and so on. The Reverend, I’m told, intends to raise the issue of a closer, genuine, link during his speech. And he wanted a few vital members of the audience to be …primed in advance, as it were. And here we are.’

There was a brief silence.

‘To think’ said the Bishop of Ely ‘it’s all about to change.’

‘For the better’ the Bishop of Warrington assured him. ‘Very much for the better.’

#Teenage Bishops

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readbookywooks · 8 years

Text

Grawp

The story of Fred and George's flight to freedom was retold so often over the next few days that Harry could tell it would soon become the stuff of Hogwart's legend: within a week, even those who had been eye-witnesses were half-convinced they had seen the twins dive-bomb Umbridge on their brooms and pelt her with Dungbombs before zooming out of the doors. In the immediate aftermath of their departure there was a great wave of talk about copying them. Harry frequently heard students saying things like, 'Honestly, some days I just feel like jumping on my broom and leaving this place,' or else, 'One more lesson like that and I might just do a Weasley.' Fred and George had made sure nobody was likely to forget them too soon. For one thing, they had not left instructions on how to remove the swamp that now filled the corridor on the fifth floor of the east wing. Umbridge and Filch had been observed trying different means of removing it but without success. Eventually, the area was roped off and Filch, gnashing his teeth furiously, was given the task of punting students across it to their classrooms. Harry was certain that teachers like McGonagall or Flitwick could have removed the swamp in an instant but, just as in the case of Fred and George's Wildfire Whiz-bangs, they seemed to prefer to watch Umbridge struggle. Then there were the two large broom-shaped holes in Umbridge's office door, through which Fred and George's Cleansweeps had smashed to rejoin their masters. Filch fitted a new door and removed Harry's Firebolt to the dungeons where, it was rumoured, Umbridge had set an armed security troll to guard it. However, her troubles were far from over. Inspired by Fred and George's example, a great number of students were now vying for the newly vacant positions of Troublemakers-in-Chief. In spite of the new door, somebody managed to slip a hairy-snouted Niffler into Umbridge's office, which promptly tore the place apart in its search for shiny objects, leapt on Umbridge when she entered and tried to gnaw the rings off her stubby fingers. Dungbombs and Stink Pellets were dropped so frequently in the corridors that it became the new fashion for students to perform Bubble-Head Charms on themselves before leaving lessons, which ensured them a supply of fresh air, even though it gave them all the peculiar appearance of wearing upside-down goldfish bowls on their heads. Filch prowled the corridors with a horsewhip ready in his hands, desperate to catch miscreants, but the problem was that there were now so many of them he never knew which way to turn. The Inquisitorial Squad was attempting to help him, but odd things kept happening to its members. Warrington of the Slytherin Quidditch team reported to the hospital wing with a horrible skin complaint that made him look as though he had been coated in cornflakes; Pansy Parkinson, to Hermione's delight, missed all her lessons the following day as she had sprouted antlers. Meanwhile, it became clear just how many Skiving Snackboxes Fred and George had managed to sell before leaving Hogwarts. Umbridge only had to enter her classroom for the students assembled there to faint, vomit, develop dangerous fevers or else spout blood from both nostrils. Shrieking with rage and frustration, she attempted to trace the mysterious symptoms to their source, but the students told her stubbornly they were suffering from 'Umbridge--itis'. After putting four successive classes in detention and failing to discover their secret, she was forced to give up and allow the bleeding, swooning, sweating and vomiting students to leave her classes in droves. But not even the users of the Snackboxes could compete with that master of chaos, Peeves, who seemed to have taken Fred's parting words deeply to heart. Cackling madly, he soared through the school, upending tables, bursting out of blackboards, toppling statues and vases; twice he shut Mrs. Norris inside a suit of armour, from which she was rescued, yowling loudly, by the furious caretaker. Peeves smashed lanterns and snuffed out candles, juggled burning torches over the heads of screaming students, caused neatly stacked piles of parchment to topple into fires or out of windows; flooded the second floor when he pulled off all the taps in the bathrooms, dropped a bag of tarantulas in the middle of the Great Hall during breakfast and, whenever he fancied a break, spent hours at a time floating along after Umbridge and blowing loud raspberries every time she spoke. None of the staff but Filch seemed to be stirring themselves to help her. Indeed, a week after Fred and George's departure Harry witnessed Professor McGonagall walking right past Peeves, who was determinedly loosening a crystal chandelier, and could have sworn he heard her tell the poltergeist out of the corner of her mouth, 'It unscrews the other way.' To cap matters, Montague had still not recovered from his sojourn in the toilet; he remained confused and disorientated and his parents were to be observed one Tuesday morning striding up the front drive, looking extremely angry. 'Should we say something?' said Hermione in a worried voice, pressing her cheek against the Charms window so that she could see Mr. and Mrs. Montague marching inside. 'About what happened to him? In case it helps Madam Pomfrey cure him?' 'Course not, he'll recover,' said Ron indifferently. 'Anyway, more trouble for Umbridge, isn't it?' said Harry in a satisfied voice. He and Ron both tapped the teacups they were supposed to be charming with their wands. Harry's spouted four very short legs that could not reach the desk and wriggled pointlessly in midair. Ron's grew four very thin spindly legs that hoisted the cup off the desk with great difficulty, trembled for a few seconds, then folded, causing the cup to crack into two. 'Reparo,' said Hermione quickly, mending Ron's cup with a wave of her wand. 'That's all very well, but what if Montague's permanently injured?' 'Who cares?' said Ron irritably, while his teacup stood up drunkenly again, trembling violently at the knees. 'Montague shouldn't have tried to take all those points from Gryffindor, should he? If you want to worry about anyone, Hermione, worry about me!' 'You?' she said, catching her teacup as it scampered happily away across the desk on four sturdy little willow-patterned legs, and replacing it in front of her. 'Why should I be worried about you?' 'When Mum's next letter finally gets through Umbridge's screening process,' said Ron bitterly, now holding his cup up while its frail legs tried feebly to support its weight, 'I'm going to be in deep trouble. I wouldn't be surprised if she's sent another Howler.' 'But--' 'It'll be my fault Fred and George left, you wait,' said Ron darkly. 'She'll say I should've stopped them leaving, I should've grabbed the ends of their brooms and hung on or something ... yeah, it'll be all my fault.' 'Well, if she doe's say that it'll be very unfair, you couldn't have done anything! But I'm sure she won't, I mean, if it's really true they've got premises in Diagon Alley, they must have been planning this for ages.' 'Yeah, but that's another thing, how did they get premises?' said Ron, hitting his teacup so hard with his wand that its legs collapsed again and it lay twitching before him. 'It's a bit dodgy, isn't it? They'll need loads of Galleons to afford the rent on a place in Diagon Alley. She'll want to know what they've been up to, to get their hands on that sort of gold.' 'Well, yes, that occurred to me, too,' said Hermione, allowing her teacup to jog in neat little circles around Harry's, whose stubby little legs were still unable to touch the desktop, 'I've been wondering whether Mundungus has persuaded them to sell stolen goods or something awful.' 'He hasn't,' said Harry curtly. 'How do you know?' said Ron and Hermione together. 'Because--' Harry hesitated, but the moment to confess finally seemed to have come. There was no good to be gained in keeping silent if it meant anyone suspected that Fred and George were criminals. 'Because they got the gold from me. I gave them my Triwizard winnings last June.' There was a shocked silence, then Hermione's teacup jogged right over the edge of the desk and smashed on the floor. 'Oh, Harry, you didn't!' she said. 'Yes, I did,' said Harry mutinously. 'And I don't regret it, either. I didn't need the gold and they'll be great at running a joke shop.' 'But this is excellent!' said Ron, looking thrilled. 'It's all your fault, Harry--Mum can't blame me at all! Can I tell her?' 'Yeah, I suppose you'd better,' said Harry dully, ' 'specially if she thinks they're receiving stolen cauldrons or something.' Hermione said nothing at all for the rest of the lesson, but Harry had a shrewd suspicion that her self-restraint was bound to crack before long. Sure enough, once they had left the castle for break and were standing around in the weak May sunshine, she fixed Harry with a beady eye and opened her mouth with a determined air. Harry interrupted her before she had even started. 'It's no good nagging me, it's done,' he said firmly. 'Fred and George have got the gold-- spent a good bit of it, too, by the sounds of it--and I can't get it back from them and I don't want to. So save your breath, Hermione.' 'I wasn't going to say anything about Fred and George!' she said in an injured voice. Ron snorted disbelievingly and Hermione threw him a very dirty look. 'No, I wasn't!' she said angrily. 'As a matter of fact, I was going to ask Harry when he's going to go back to Snape and ask for more Occlumency lessons!' Harry's heart sank. Once they had exhausted the subject of Fred and George's dramatic departure, which admittedly had taken many hours, Ron and Hermione had wanted to hear news of Sirius. As Harry had not confided in them the reason he had wanted to talk to Sirius in the first place, it had been hard to think of what to tell them; he had ended up saying, truthfully, that Sirius wanted Harry to resume Occlumency lessons. He had been regretting this ever since; Hermione would not let the subject drop and kept reverting to it when Harry least expected it. 'You can't tell me you've stopped having funny dreams,' Hermione said now, 'because Ron told me you were muttering in your sleep again last night.' Harry threw Ron a furious look. Ron had the grace to look ashamed of himself. 'You were only muttering a bit,' he mumbled apologetically. 'Something about "just a bit further".' 'I dreamed I was watching you lot play Quidditch,' Harry lied brutally. 'I was trying to get you to stretch out a bit further to grab the Quaffle.' Ron's ears went red. Harry felt a kind of vindictive pleasure; he had not, of course, dreamed anything of the sort. Last night, he had once again made the journey along the Department of Mysteries corridor. He had passed through the circular room, then the room full of clicking and dancing light, until he found himself again inside that cavernous room full of shelves on which were ranged dusty glass spheres. He had hurried straight towards row number ninety-seven, turned left and run along it ... it had probably been then that he had spoken aloud ... just a bit further ... for he felt his conscious self struggling to wake ... and before he had reached the end of the row, he had found himself lying in bed again, gazing up at the canopy of his four-poster. 'You are trying to block your mind, aren't you?' said. Hermione, looking beadily at Harry. 'You are keeping going with your Occlumency?' 'Of course I am,' said Harry, trying to sound as though this question was insulting, but not quite meeting her eye. The truth was he was so intensely curious about what was hidden in that room full of dusty orbs, that he was quite keen for the dreams to continue. The problem was that with just under a month to go until the exams and every free moment devoted to revision, his mind seemed so saturated with information when he went to bed he found it very difficult to get to sleep at all; and when he did, his overwrought brain presented him most nights with stupid dreams about the exams. He also suspected that part of his mind--the part that often spoke in Hermione's voice--now felt guilty on the occasions it strayed down that corridor ending in the black door, and sought to wake him before he could reach the journey's end. 'You know,' said Ron, whose ears were still flaming red, 'if Montague doesn't recover before Slytherin play Hufflepuff, we might be in with a chance of winning the Cup.' 'Yeah, I s'pose so,' said Harry, glad of a change of subject. 'I mean, we've won one, lost one--if Slytherin lose to Hufflepuff next Saturday--' 'Yeah, that's right,' said Harry, losing track of what he was agreeing to. Cho Chang had just walked across the courtyard, determinedly not looking at him. The final match of the Quidditch season, Gryffindor versus Ravenclaw, was to take place on the last weekend of May. Although Slytherin had been narrowly defeated by Hufflepuff in their last match, Gryffindor were not daring to hope for victory, due mainly (though of course nobody said it to him) to Ron's abysmal goal-keeping record. He, however, seemed to have found a new optimism. 'I mean, I can't get any worse, can I?' he told Harry and Hermione grimly over breakfast on the morning of the match. 'Nothing to lose now, is there?' 'You know,' said Hermione, as she and Harry walked down to the pitch a little later in the midst of a very excitable crowd, 'I think Ron might do better without Fred and George around. They never exactly gave him a lot of confidence.' Luna Lovegood overtook them with what appeared to be a live eagle perched on top of her head. 'Oh, gosh, I forgot!' said Hermione, watching the eagle flapping its wings as Luna walked serenely past a group of cackling and pointing Slytherins. 'Cho will be playing, won't she?' Harry, who had not forgotten this, merely grunted. They found seats in the topmost row of the stands. It was a fine, ckar day; Ron could not wish for better, and Harry found himself hoping against hope that Ron would not give the Slytherins cause for more rousing choruses of 'Weasley is our King'. Lee Jordan, who had been very dispirited since Fred and George had left, was commentating as usual. As the teams zoomed out on to the pitch he named the players with something less than his usual gusto. '... Bradley ... Davies ... Chang,' he said, and Harry felt his stomach perform, less of a back flip, more a feeble lurch as Cho walked out on to the pitch, her shiny black hair rippling in the slight breeze.He was not sure what he wanted to happen any more, except that he could not stand any more rows. Even the sight of her chatting animatedly to Roger Davies as they prepared to mount their brooms caused him only a slight twinge of jealousy. 'And they're off!' said Lee. 'And Davies takes the Quaffle immediately, Ravenclaw Captain Davies with the Quaffle, he dodges Johnson, he dodges Bell, he dodges Spinnet as well ... he's going straight for goal! He's going to shoot--and--and--' Lee swore very loudly. 'And he's scored.' Harry and Hermione groaned with the rest of the Gryffindors. Predictably, horribly the Slytherins on the other side of the stands began to sing: 'Weasley cannot save a thing He cannot block a single ring ... ' 'Harry,' said a hoarse voice in Harry's ear. 'Hermione ...' Harry looked round and saw Hagrid's enormous bearded face sticking between the seats. Apparently, he had squeezed his way all along the row behind, for the first- and second-years he had just passed had a ruffled, flattened look about them. For some reason, Hagrid was bent double as though anxious not to be seen, though he was still at least four feet taller than everybody else. 'Listen,' he whispered, 'can yeh come with me? Now? While ev'ryone's watchin' the match?' 'Er ... can't it wait, Hagrid?' asked Harry. 'Till the match is over?' 'No,' said Hagrid. 'No, Harry, it's gotta be now ... while ev'ryone's lookin' the other way ... please?' Hagrid's nose was gently dripping blood. His eyes were both blackened. Harry had not seen him this close-up since his return to the school; he looked utterly woebegone. 'Course,' said Harry at once, 'course we'll come.' He and Hermione edged back along their row of seats, causing much grumbling among the students who had to stand up for them. The people in Hagrid's row were not complaining, merely attempting to make themselves as small as possible. 'I 'ppreciate this, you two, I really do,' said Hagrid as they reached the stairs. He kept looking around nervously as they descended towards the lawn below. 'I jus' hope she doesn' notice us goin'.' 'You mean Umbridge?' said Harry. 'She won't, she's got her whole Inquisitorial Squad sitting with her, didn't you see? She must be expecting trouble at the match.' 'Yeah, well, a bit o' trouble wouldn' hurt,' said Hagrid, pausing to peer around the edge of the stands to make sure the stretch of lawn between there and his cabin was deserted. 'Give us more time.' 'What is it, Hagrid?' said Hermione, looking up at him with a concerned expression on her face as they hurried across the grass towards the edge of the Forest. 'Yeh--yeh'll see in a mo',' said Hagrid, looking over his shoulder as a great roar rose from the stands behind them. 'Hey--did someone jus' score?' 'It'll be Ravenclaw,' said Harry heavily. 'Good ... good ...' said Hagrid distractedly. 'Tha's good ...' They had to jog to keep up with him as he strode across the lawn, looking around with every other step. When they reached his cabin, Hermione turned automatically left towards the front door. Hagrid, however, walked straight past it into the shade of the trees on the outermost edge of the Forest, where he picked up a crossbow that was leaning against a tree. When he realised they were no longer with him, he turned. 'We're goin' in here,' he said, jerking his shaggy head behind him. 'Into the Forest?' said Hermione, perplexed. 'Yeah,' said Hagrid. 'C'mon now, quick, before we're spotted!' Harry and Hermione looked at each other, then ducked into the cover of the trees behind Hagrid, who was already striding away from them into the green gloom, his crossbow over his arm. Harry and Hermione ran to catch up with him. 'Hagrid, why are you armed?' said Harry. 'Jus' a precaution,' said Hagrid, shrugging his massive shoulders. 'You didn't bring your crossbow the day you showed us the Thestrals,' said Hermione timidly. 'Nah, well, we weren' goin' in so far then,' said Hagrid. 'An' anyway, tha' was before Firenze left the Forest, wasn' it?' 'Why does Firenze leaving make a difference?' asked Hermione curiously. ' 'Cause the other centaurs are good an' riled at me, tha's why,' said Hagrid quietly, glancing around. 'They used ter be--well, yeh couldn' call 'em friendly--but we got on all righ'. Kept 'emselves to 'emselves, bu' always turned up if I wanted a word. Not any more.' He sighed deeply. 'Firenze said they're angry because he went to work for Dumbledore,' Harry said, tripping on a protruding root because he was busy watching Hagrid's profile. 'Yeah,' said Hagrid heavily. 'Well, angry doesn' cover it. Ruddy livid. If I hadn' stepped in, I reckon they'd've kicked Firenze ter death--' 'They attacked him?' said Hermione, sounding shocked. 'Yep,' said Hagrid gruffly, forcing his way through several low-hanging branches. 'He had half the herd on to him.' 'And you stopped it?' said Harry, amazed and impressed. 'By yourself?' 'Course I did, couldn't stand by an' watch 'em kill 'im, could I?' said Hagrid. 'Lucky I was passin', really ... an' I'd've thought Firenze mighta remembered tha' before he started sendin' me stupid warnin's!' he added hotly and unexpectedly. Harry and Hermione looked at each other, startled, but Hagrid, scowling, did not elaborate. 'Anyway,' he said, breathing a little more heavily than usud, 'since then the other centaurs've bin livid with me, an' the trouble is they've got a lot of influence in the Forest ... cleverest creatures in here.' 'Is that why we're here, Hagrid?' asked Hermione. 'The centaurs?' 'Ah, no,' said Hagrid, shaking his head dismissively, 'no, it's not them. Well, o' course, they could complicate the problem, yeah ... but yeh'll see what I mean in a bit.' On this incomprehensible note he fell silent and forged a little ahead, taking one stride for every three of theirs, so that they had great trouble keeping up with him. The path was becoming increasingly overgrown and the trees grew so closely together as they walked further and further into the Forest that it was as dark as dusk. They were soon a long way past the clearing where Hagrid had shown them the Thestrals, but Harry felt no sense of unease until Hagrid stepped unexpectedly off the path and began wending his way in and out of trees towards the dark heart of the Forest. 'Hagrid!' said Harry, fighting his way through thickly knotted brambles, over which Hagrid had stepped with ease, and remembering very vividly what had happened to him on the other occasion he had stepped off the Forest path. 'Where are we going?' 'Bit further,' said Hagrid over his shoulder. 'C'mon, Harry ... we need ter keep together now.' It was a great struggle to keep up with Hagrid, what with branches and thickets of thorn through which Hagrid marched as easily as if they were cobwebs, but which snagged Harry and Hermione's robes, frequently entangling them so severely that they had to stop for minutes at a time to free themselves. Harry's arms and legs were soon covered in small cuts and scratches. They were so deep in the Forest now that sometimes all Harry could see of Hagrid in the gloom was a massive dark shape ahead of him. Any sound seemed threatening in the muffled silence. The breaking of a twig echoed loudly and the tiniest rustle of movement, even though it might have been made by an innocent sparrow, caused Harry to peer through the gloom for a culprit. It occurred to him that he had never managed to get this far into the Forest without meeting some kind of creature; their absence struck him as rather ominous. 'Hagrid, would it be all right if we lit our wands?' said Hermione quietly. 'Er ... all righ',' Hagrid whispered back. 'In fact--' He stopped suddenly and turned around; Hermione walked right into him and was knocked over backwards. Harry caught her just before she hit the Forest floor. 'Maybe we bes' jus' stop fer a momen', so I can ... fill yeh in,' said Hagrid. 'Before we ge' there, like.' 'Good!' said Hermione, as Harry set her back on her feet. They both murmured 'Lumos!' and their wand-tips ignited. Hagrid's face swam through the gloom by the light of the two wavering beams and Harry saw again that he looked nervous and sad. 'Righ',' said Hagrid. 'Well ... see ... the thing is ...' He took a great breath. 'Well, there's a good chance I'm goin' ter be gettin' the sack any day now,' he said. Harry and Hermione looked at each other, then back at him. 'But you've lasted this long--' Hermione said tentatively. 'What makes you think--' 'Umbridge reckons it was me that put tha' Niffler in her office.' 'And was it?' said Harry, before he could stop himself. 'No, it ruddy well wasn'!' said Hagrid indignantly. 'On'y any-thin' ter do with magical creatures an' she thinks it's got somethin' ter do with me. Yeh know she's bin lookin' fer a chance ter get rid of me ever since I got back. I don' wan' ter go, o' course, but if it wasn' fer ... well ... the special circumstances I'm abou' ter explain to yeh, I'd leave righ' now, before she's go' the chance ter do it in front o' the whole school, like she did with Trelawney.' Harry and Hermione both made noises of protest, but Hagrid overrode them with a wave of one of his enormous hands. 'It's not the end o' the world, I'll be able ter help Dumbledore once I'm outta here, I can be useful ter the Order. An you lot'll have Grubbly-Plank, yeh'll--yeh'll get through yer exams fine ...' His voice trembled and broke. 'Don' worry abou' me,' he said hastily, as Hermione made to pat his arm. He pulled his enormous spotted handkerchief from the pocket of his waistcoat and mopped his eyes with it. 'Look, I wouldn' be tellin' yer this at all if I didn' have ter. See, if I go ... well, I can' leave withou' ... withou' tellin' someone ... because I'll--I'll need yeh two ter help me. An' Ron, if he's willin'.' 'Of course we'll help you,' said Harry at once. 'What do you want us to do?' Hagrid gave a great sniff and patted Harry wordlessly on the shoulder with such force Harry was knocked sideways into a tree. 'I knew yeh'd say yes,' said Hagrid into his handkerchief, 'but I won' ... never ... forget ... well ... c'mon ... jus' a little bit further through here ... watch yerselves, now, there's nettles ...' They walked on in silence for another fifteen minutes; Harry had opened his mouth to ask how much further they had to go when Hagrid threw out his right arm to signal that they should stop. 'Really easy,' he said softly. 'Very quiet, now ...' They crept forwards and Harry saw that they were facing a large, smooth mound of earth nearly as tall as Hagrid that he thought, with a jolt of dread, was sure to be the lair of some enormous animal. Trees had been ripped up at the roots all around the mound, so that it stood on a bare patch of ground surrounded by heaps of trunks and boughs that formed a kind of fence or barricade, behind which Harry, Hermione and Hagrid now stood. 'Sleepin',' breathed Hagrid. Sure enough, Harry could hear a distant, rhythmic rumbling that sounded like a pair of enormous lungs at work. He glanced sideways at Hermione, who was gazing at the mound with her mouth slightly open. She looked utterly terrified. 'Hagrid,' she said in a whisper barely audible over the sound of the sleeping creature, 'who is he?' Harry found this an odd question ... 'What is it?' was the one he; had been planning on asking. 'Hagrid, you told us--' said Hermione, her wand now shaking in her hand, 'you told us none of them wanted to come!' Harry looked from her to Hagrid and then, as realisation hit him, he looked back at the mound with a small gasp of horror. The great mound of earth, on which he, Hermione and Hagrid could easily have stood, was moving slowly up and down in time with the deep, grunting breathing. It was not a mound at all. 'It was the curved back of what was clearly--' 'Well--no--he didn' want ter come,' said Hagrid, sounding desperate. 'But I had ter bring him, Hermione, I had ter!' 'But why?' asked Hermione, who sounded as though she wanted to cry. 'Why--what--oh, Hagrid!' 'I knew if I jus' got him back,' said Hagrid, sounding close to tears himself, 'an'--an' taught him a few manners--I'd be able ter take him outside an' show ev'ryone he's harmless!' 'Harmless!' said Hermione shrilly, and Hagrid made frantic hushing noises with his hands as the enormous creature before them grunted loudly and shifted in its sleep. 'He's been hurting you all this time, hasn't he? That's why you've had all these injuries!' 'He don' know his own strength!' said Hagrid earnestly. 'An' he's gettin' better, he's not fightin' so much any more--' 'So, this is why it took you two months to get home!' said Hermione distractedly. 'Oh, Hagrid, why did you bring him back if he didn't want to come? Wouldn't he have been happier with his own people?' 'They were all bullyin' him, Hermione, 'cause he's so small!' said Hagrid. 'Small?' said Hermione. 'Small?' 'Hermione, I couldn' leave him,' said Hagrid, tears now trickling down his bruised face into his beard. 'See--he's my brother!' Hermione simply stared at him, her mouth open. 'Hagrid, when you say "brother",' said Harry slowly, 'do you mean--?' 'Well-- half-brother,' amended Hagrid. 'Turns out me mother took up with another giant when she left me dad, an' she went an' had Grawp here--' 'Grawp?' said Harry. 'Yeah ... well, tha's what it sounds like when he says his name,' said Hagrid anxiously. 'He don' speak a lot of English ... I've bin tryin' ter teach him ... anyway, she don' seem ter have liked him much more'n she liked me. See, with giantesses, what counts is producin' good big kids, and he's always been a bit on the runty side fer a giant--on'y sixteen foot--' 'Oh, yes, tiny!' said Hermione, with a kind of hysterical sarcasm. 'Absolutely minuscule!' 'He was bein' kicked aroun' by all o' them--I jus' couldn' leave him--' 'Did Madame Maxime want to bring him back?' asked Harry. 'She--well, she could see it was right importan' ter me,' said Hagrid, twisting his enormous hands. 'Bu'--bu' she got a bit tired o' him after a while, I must admit ... so we split up on the journey home ... she promised not ter tell anyone, though ...' 'How on earth did you get him back without anyone noticing?' said Harry. 'Well, tha's why it took so long, see,' said Hagrid. 'Could on'y travel by nigh' an' through wild country an' stuff. Course, he covers the ground pretty well when he wants ter, but he kep' wantin' ter go back.' 'Oh, Hagrid, why on earth didn't you let him!' said Hermione, flopping down on to a ripped up tree and burying her face in her hands. 'What do you think you're going to do with a violent giant who doesn't even want to be here!' 'Well, now-- "violent"--tha's a bit harsh,' said Hagrid, still twisting his hands agitatedly. 'I'll admit he mighta taken a couple o' swings at me when he's bin in a bad mood, but he's gettin' better, loads better, settlin' down well.' 'What are those ropes for, then?' Harry asked. He had just noticed ropes thick as saplings stretching from around the trunks of the largest nearby trees towards the place where Grawp lay curled on the ground with his back to them. 'You have to keep him tied up?' said Hermione faintly. 'Well ... yeah ...' said Hagrid, looking anxious. 'See--it's like I say--he doesn' really know 'is own strength.' Harry understood now why there had been such a suspicious lack of any other living creature in this part of the Forest. 'So, what is it you want Harry and Ron and me to do?' Hermione asked apprehensively. 'Look after him,' said Hagrid croakily. 'After I'm gone.' Harry and Hermione exchanged miserable looks, Harry uncomfortably aware that he had already promised Hagrid that he would do whatever he asked. 'What--what does that involve, exactly?' Hermione enquired. 'Not food or anythin'!' said Hagrid eagerly. 'He can get his own food, no problem. Birds an' deer an' stuff ... no, it's company he needs. I xxjus' knew someone was carryin on trying ter help him a bit ... teachin' him, yeh know.' Harry said nothing, but turned to look back at the gigantic form lying asleep on the ground in front of them. Unlike Hagrid, who simply looked like an oversized human, Grawp looked strangely misshapen. What Harry had taken to be a vast mossy boulder to the left of the great earthen mound he now recognised as Grawp's head. It was much larger in proportion to the body than a human head, and was almost perfectly round and covered with tightly curling, close-growing hair the colour of bracken. The rim of a single large, fleshy ear was visible on top of the head, which seemed to sit, rather like Uncle Vernon's, directly upon the shoulders with little or no neck in between. The back, under what looked like a dirty brownish smock comprised of animal skins sewn roughly together, was very broad; and as Grawp slept, it seemed to strain a little at the rough seams of the skins. The legs were curled up under the body. Harry could see the soles of enormous, filthy, bare feet, large as sledges, resting one on top of the other on the earthy Forest floor. 'You want us to teach him,' Harry said in a hollow voice. He now understood what Firenze's warning had meant. His attempt is not working. He would do better to abandon it.Of course, the other creatures who lived in the Forest would have heard Hagrid's fruitless attempts to teach Grawp English. 'Yeah--even if yeh jus' talk ter him a bit,' said Hagrid hopefully. ' 'Cause I reckon, if he can talk ter people, he'll understand more that we all like 'im really, an' want 'im ter stay.' Harry looked at Hermione, who peered back at him from between the fingers over her face. 'Kind of makes you wish we had Norbert back, doesn't it?' he said, and she gave a very shaky laugh. 'Yeh'll do it, then?' said Hagrid, who did not seem to have caugit what Harry had just said. 'We'll ...' said Harry, already bound by his promise. 'We'll try, Hagrid.' 'I knew I could count on yeh, Harry,' Hagrid said, beaming in a very watery way and dabbing at his face with his handkerchief again. 'An' I don' wan' yeh ter put yerself out too much, like ... I know yeh've got exams ... if yeh could jus' nip down here in yer Invisibility Cloak maybe once a week an' have a little chat with 'im. I'll wake 'im up, then--introduce yeh--' 'Wha--no!' said Hermione, jumping up. 'Hagrid, no, don't wake him, really, we don't need--' But Hagrid had already stepped over the great tree trunk in front of them and was proceeding towards Grawp. When he was about ten feet away, he lifted a long, broken bough from the ground, smiled reassuringly over his shoulder at Harry and Hermione, then poked Grawp hard in the middle of the back with the end of the bough. The giant gave a roar that echoed around the silent Forest; birds in the treetops overhead rose twittering from their perches and soared away. In front of Harry and Hermione, meanwhile, the gigantic Grawp was rising from the ground, which shuddered as he placed an enormous hand upon it to push himself on to his knees. He turned his head to see who and what had disturbed him. 'All righ', Grawpy?' said Hagrid, in a would-be cheery voice, backing away with the long bough raised, ready to poke Grawp again. 'Had a nice sleep, eh?' Harry and Hermione retreated as far as they could while still keeping the giant within their sights. Grawp knelt between two trees he had not yet uprooted. They looked up into his startlingly huge face that resembled a grey full moon swimming in the gloom of the clearing. It was as though the features had been hewn on to a great stone ball. The nose was stubby and shapeless, the mouth lopsided and full of misshapen yellow teeth the size of half-bricks; the eyes, small by giant standards, were a muddy greenish-brown and just now were half-gummed together with sleep. Grawp raised dirty knuckles, each as big as a cricket ball, to his eyes, rubbed vigorously, then, without warning, pushed himself to his feet with surprising speed and agility. 'Oh my!' Harry heard Hermione squeal, terrified, beside him. The trees to which the other ends of the ropes around Grawp's wrists and ankles were attached creaked ominously. He was, as Hagrid had said, at least sixteen feet tall. Gazing blearily around, Grawp reached out a hand the size of a beach umbrella, seized a bird's nest from the upper branches of a towering pine and turned it upside-down with a roar of apparent displeasure that there was no bird in it; eggs fell like grenades towards the ground and Hagrid threw his arms over his head to protect himself. 'Anyway, Grawpy,' shouted Hagrid, looking up apprehensively in case of further falling eggs, 'I've brought some friends ter meet yeh. Remember, I told yeh I might? Remember, when I said I might have ter go on a little trip an' leave them ter look after yeh fer a bit? Remember that, Grawpy?' But Grawp merely gave another low roar; it was hard to say whether he was listening to Hagrid or whether he even recognised the sounds Hagrid was making as speech. He had now seized the top of the pine tree and was pulling it towards him, evidently for the simple pleasure of seeing how far it would spring back when he let go. 'Now, Grawpy, don' do that!' shouted Hagrid. 'Tha's how you ended up pullin' up the others-- ' And sure enough, Harry could see the earth around the tree's roots beginning to crack. 'I got company for yeh!' Hagrid shouted. 'Company, see! Look down, yeh big buffoon, I brought yeh some friends!' 'Oh, Hagrid, don't,' moaned Hermione, but Hagrid had already raised the bough again and gave Grawp's knee a sharp poke. The giant let go of the top of the tree, which swayed alarmingly and deluged Hagrid with a rain of pine needles, and looked down. 'This,' said Hagrid, hastening over to where Harry and Herrmone stood, 'is Harry, Grawp! Harry Potter! He migh' be comin' ter visit yeh if I have ter go away, understand?' The giant had only just realised that Harry and Hermione were there. They watched, in great trepidation, as he lowered his huge boulder of a head so that he could peer blearily at them. 'An' this is Hermione, see? Her--' Hagrid hesitated. Turning to Hermione, he said, 'Would yeh mind if he called yeh Hermy, Hermione? On'y it's a difficult name fer him ter remember.' 'No, not at all,' squeaked Hermione. 'This is Hermy, Grawp! An' she's gonna be comin' an' all! Is'n' tha' nice? Eh? Two friends fer yeh ter--GRAWPY, NO!' Grawp's hand had shot out of nowhere towards Hermione; Harry seized her and pulled her backwards behind the tree, so that Grawp's fist scraped the trunk but closed on thin air. 'BAD BOY, GRAWPY!' they heard Hagrid yelling, as Hermione clung to Harry behind the tree, shaking and whimpering. 'VERY BAD BOY! YEH DON' GRAB--OUCH!' Harry poked his head out from around the trunk and saw Hagrid lying on his back, his hand over his nose. Grawp, apparently losing interest, had straightened up and was again engaged in pulling back the pine as far as it would go. 'Righ',' said Hagrid thickly, getting up with one hand pinching his bleeding nose and the other grasping his crossbow, 'well ... there yeh are ... yeh've met him an' --an' now he'll know yeh when yeh come back. Yeah ... well ...' He looked up at Grawp, who was now pulling back the pine with an expression of detached pleasure on his boulderish face; the roots were creaking as he ripped them away from the ground. 'Well, I reckon tha's enough fer one day,' said Hagrid. 'We'll--'er--we'll go back now, shall we?' Harry and Hermione nodded. Hagrid shouldered his crossbow again and, still pinching his nose, led the way back into the trees. Nobody spoke for a while, not even when they heard the distant crash that meant Grawp had pulled over the pine tree at last. Hermione's face was pale and set. Harry could not think of a single thing to say. What on earth was going to happen when somebody found out that Hagrid had hidden Grawp in the Forbidden Forest? And he had promised that he, Ron and Hermione would continue Hagrid's totally pointless attempts to civilise the giant. How could Hagrid, even with his immense capacity to delude himself that fanged monsters were loveably harmless, fool himself that Grawp would ever be fit to mix with humans? 'Hold it,' said Hagrid abruptly, just as Harry and Hermione were struggling through a patch of thick knotgrass behind him. He pulled an arrow out of the quiver over his shoulder and fitted it into the crossbow. Harry and Hermione raised their wands; now that they had stopped walking, they, too, could hear movement close by. 'Oh, blimey,' said Hagrid quietly. 'I thought we told you, Hagrid,' said a deep male voice, 'That you are no longer welcome here?' A man's naked torso seemed for an instant to be floating towards them through the dappled green half-light; then they saw that his waist joined smoothly into a horse's chestnut body. This centaur had a proud, high-cheekboned face and long black hair. Like Hagrid, he was armed; a quiverful of arrows and a longbow were slung over his shoulders. 'How are yeh, Magorian?' said Hagrid warily. The trees behind the centaur rustled and four or five more centaurs emerged behind him. Harry recognised the black-bodied and bearded Bane, whom he had met nearly four years ago on the same night he had met Firenze. Bane gave no sign that he had ever seen Harry before. 'So,' he said, with a nasty inflection in his voice, before turning immediately to Magorian. 'We agreed, I think, what we would do if this human ever showed his face in the Forest again?' '"This human" now, am I?' said Hagrid testily. 'Jus' fer stoppin' all of yeh committin' murder?' 'You ought not to have meddled, Hagrid,' said Magorian. 'Our ways are not yours, nor are our laws. Firenze has betrayed and dishonoured us.' 'I dunno how yeh work that out,' said Hagrid impatiently. 'He's done nothin' except help Albus Dumbledore--' 'Firenze has entered into servitude to humans,' said a grey centaur with a hard, deeply lined face. 'Servitude!' said Hagrid scathingly. 'He's doin' Dumbledore a favour is all--' 'He is peddling our knowledge and secrets among humans,' said Magorian quietly. 'There can be no return from such disgrace.' 'If yeh say so,' said Hagrid, shrugging, 'but personally I think yeh're makin' a big mistake--' 'As are you, human,' said Bane, 'coming back into our Forest when we warned you--' 'Now, yeh listen ter me,' said Hagrid angrily. 'I'll have less of the "our" Forest, if it's all the same ter yeh. It's not up ter yeh who comes an' goes in here--' 'No more is it up to you, Hagrid,' said Magorian smoothly. 'I shall let you pass today because you are accompanied by your young--' 'They're not his!' interrupted Bane contemptuously. 'Students, Magorian, from up at the school! They have probably already profited from the traitor Firenze's teachings.' 'Nevertheless,' said Magorian calmly, 'the slaughter of foals is a terrible crime--we do not touch the innocent. Today, Hagrid, you pass. Henceforth, stay away from this place. You forfeited the friendship of the centaurs when you helped the traitor Firenze escape us.' 'I won' be kept outta the Fores' by a bunch o' old mules like yeh!' said Hagrid loudly. 'Hagrid,' said Hermione in a high-pitched and terrified voice, as both Bane and the grey centaur pawed at the ground, 'let's go, please let's go!' Hagrid moved forwards, but his crossbow was still raised and his eyes were still fixed threateningly upon Magorian. 'We know what you are keeping in the Forest, Hagrid!' Magorian called after them, as the centaurs slipped out of sight. 'And our tolerance is waning!' Hagrid turned and gave every appearance of wanting to walk straight back to Magorian. 'Yeh'll tolerate 'im as long as he's here, it's as much his Forest as yours!' he yelled, as Harry and Hermione both pushed with all their might against Hagrid's moleskin waistcoat in an effort to keep him moving forwards. Still scowling, he looked down; his expression changed to mild surprise at the sight of them both pushing him; he seemed not to have felt it. 'Calm down, you two,' he said, turning to walk on while they parted along behind him. 'Ruddy old mules, though, eh?' 'Hagrid,' said Hermione breathlessly, skirting the patch of nettles they had passed on their way there, 'if the centaurs don't want humans in the Forest, it doesn't really look as though Harry and I will be able--' 'Ah, you heard what they said,' said Hagrid dismissively, 'they wouldn't hurt foals--I mean, kids. Anyway, we can' let ourselves be pushed aroun' by that lot.' 'Nice try,' Harry murmured to Hermione, who looked crestfallen. At last they rejoined the path and, after another ten minutes, the trees began to thin; they were able to see patches of clear blue sky again and, in the distance, the definite sounds of cheering and shouting. 'Was that another goal?' asked Hagrid, pausing in the shelter of the trees as the Quidditch stadium came into view. 'Or d'yeh reckon the match is over?' 'I don't know,' said Hermione miserably. Harry saw that she looked much the worse for wear; her hair was full of twigs and leaves, her robes were ripped in several places and there were numerous scratches on her face and arms. He knew he must look little better. 'I reckon it's over, yeh know!' said Hagrid, still squinting towards the stadium. 'Look-- there's people comin' out already--if yeh two hurry yeh'll be able ter blend in with the crowd an' no one'll know yeh weren't there!' 'Good idea,' said Harry. 'Well ... see you later, then, Hagrid.' 'I don't believe him,' said Hermione in a very unsteady voice, the moment they were out of earshot of Hagrid. 'I don't believe him. I really don't believe him.' 'Calm down,' said Harry. 'Calm down!' she said feverishly. 'A giant! A giant in the Forest! And we're supposed to give him English lessons! Always assuming, of course, we can get past the herd of murderous centaurs on the way in and out! I--don't--believe-- him!' 'We haven't got to do anything yet!' Harry tried to reassure her in a quiet voice, as they joined a stream of jabbering Hufflepuffs heading back towards the castle. 'He's not asking us to do anything unless he gets chucked out and that might not even happen.' 'Oh, come off it, Harry!' said Hermione angrily, stopping dead in her tracks so that the people behind had to swerve to avoid her. 'Of course he's going to be chucked out and, to be perfectly honest, after what we've just seen, who can blame Umbridge?' There was a pause in which Harry glared at her, and her eyes filled slowly with tears. 'You didn't mean that,' said Harry quietly. 'No ... well ... all right ... I didn't,' she said, wiping her eyes angrily. 'But why does he have to make life so difficult for himself--for us?' 'I dunno--' 'Weasley is our King, Weasley is our King, He didn't let the Quaffle in, Weasley is our King ...' 'And I wish they'd stop singing that stupid song,' said Hermione miserably, 'haven't they gloated enough?' A great tide of students was moving up the sloping lawns from the pitch. 'Oh, let's get in before we have to meet the Slytherins,' said Hermione. 'Weasley can save anything, He never leaves a single ring, That's why Gryffindors all sing: Weasley is our King. ' 'Hermione ...' said Harry slowly. The song was growing louder, but it was issuing not from a crowd of green-and-silver-clad Slytherins, but from a mass of red and gold moving slowly towards the castle, bearing a solitary figure upon its many shoulders. 'Weasley is our King, Weasley is our King, He didn't let the Quaffle in, Weasley is our King ...' 'No?' said Hermione in a hushed voice. 'YES!' said Harry loudly. 'HARRY! HERMIONE!' yelled Ron, waving the silver Quidditch cup in the air and looking quite beside himself. 'WE DID IT! WE WON!' They beamed up at him as he passed. There was a scrum at the door of the castle and Ron's head got rather badly bumped on the lintel, but nobody seemed to want to put him down. Still singing, the crowd squeezed itself into the Entrance Hall and out of sight. Harry and Hermione watched them go, beaming, until the last echoing strains of 'Weasley is our King' died away. Then they turned to each other, their smiles fading. 'We'll save our news till tomorrow, shall we?' said Harry. 'Yes, all right,' said Hermione wearily. 'I'm not in any hurry.' They climbed the steps together. At the front doors both instinctively looked back at the Forbidden Forest. Harry was not sure whether or not it was his imagination, but he rather thought he saw a small cloud of birds erupting into the air over the tree tops in the distance, almost as though the tree in which they had been nesting had just been pulled up by the roots.

#OrderofthePhoenix #HarryPotter

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