Synthesis Paper Term Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words

Union - Term Paper Example The reasoning is that as a practicum, it is imperative to invest energy doing things that have conceivably enormous effect on the network and on the lives of destitute individuals particularly, and understudy accomplishment among those along the edges of neediness should be comprehended with regards to bigger family and social elements for mediations to get any opportunity of succeeding (Schoolwires, 2014). Title 1 alludes to the program that is subsidized by the government program and is of the greatest of its sort in the United States, with the objective of offering money related and related help to schools with huge extents of being in danger of not fulfilling scholastic guidelines because of destitution. In its unique structure, it accomplished the power of law under the Elementary and Secondary School Act of 1965, and this was later reexamined in 1994 to change the general objectives of the program. In its present state under the No Child Left Behind, schools need to satisfy scholarly guidelines progress in accomplishment as reflected in yearly state testing all together for proceeded with consideration in the financing program. The yearly cash reserved for the program is pegged at $14 billion, and as of late upwards of 56,000 distinct schools across America have taken advantage of the program subsidizing (US Department of Education, 2015; Malburg, 2015). Note that the Abilene Inde pendent School District or AISD when all is said in done is a school locale that normally satisfies the guidelines for government support under the Title 1 program of the enactment on No Child Left Behind and before enactment that began giving extra financing and backing to class areas that have enormous quantities of understudies living in neediness or close to the destitution line. This is on the grounds that enormous quantities of inhabitants in the school locale are poor, and make considerably not exactly the normal American specialist on a

Answer questions Assignment Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 2500 words - 1

Answer questions - Assignment Example Beginning a venture requires meaning of what the undertaking is required to achieve. An undertaking begins with a thought them the vision that must be related with the vision of the business. Task contract goes about as the beginning stage where it set up the establishment of the venture. This must incorporate the business needs and the expectations to be executed. All the specifications must be attached to jobs and obligations of the task improvement group. Human and material assets must be all around characterized (Goldratt, 1997). Frequently, an association must invest more amounts of energy in estimation of the expense of the venture in the sanctioning stage. The dangers influencing the ventures are additionally thought of and their belongings to the span and cost of the task assessed. The advantages and quotes must be upheld utilizing steady methodologies which give sensible appraisals to the two expenses and advantages. The foundation of the vision of a task as per the undertaking contract encourages the accomplishment of the venture. The undertaking sanction must compares to the business case put across to exhibit that the venture is feasible and will help with accomplishing the money related, worker and client objectives. The undertaking sanctioning stage takes into consideration foundation of a successful procedure that distinguishes and settle different issues and activities that emerge during the task improvement process. The contracting procedure frames the initial phase in execution of Lean venture (Leach and Lawrence, 2005). Getting the supporters and the executives to sign is regularly troublesome. Just a single individual is required in advocating the venture and passing it around. A decent sanction must be in a situation to offer a composed documentation that proficiently supports the dispatch and the solicitations of the endeavors in venture arranging. Besides, the documentation of the task contract takes into account joint effort of the significant partners and improves the expectations. This must decently speak to the perspectives on major

Speed Walking

Speed Walking For winter break and the first half of IAP, we are in North Miami, Florida. We’re relaxing, making some art, some animation, cooking with our mom, cleaning around the house, meeting up with high school friends, spending time with our family, and also speed walking. During the semester, exercising is honestly not nearly as high up as it probably should be (read: is unfortunately the very last thing) on our priority list. It’s even below matching our socks in pairs. And we have been walking in mismatched socks every day for almost a year now. (Freshman fall was a different, more virtuous time.) Because semesters are very sedentary for us, we have been making an effort this break to try to move a little. Since we don’t like most forms of exercise and used to go on walks with our mom frequently, changing those walks to speed-walks was a fairly simple transition. Most of these sessions take place on this really nice, 1.25ish mile, linear path by our building, totalling the whole back-and-forth walk at 2.5ish miles. It is bordered left and right with lush green that is home to at least (we are convinced) 40 wild cats!! Beyond the right tree border is road, but beyond the left one is the beach! It’s been pretty fun going on these walks regularly.           Here are some memorable snippets: When we speed-walk with our mom, usually all of us listen to our own music, or none of us do and we talk. But this one time, since there werent too many people passing by, our mom suggested to just play her music (which was a playlist of her (which is also our) favorite Russian songs) on speaker. We just walked and jammed without a care in the world. Another time, we decided to walk on the beach (side note: we learned walking on sand is significantly more difficult!). The entire time, we were basically the only ones walking, and then we saw in the distance, a 60ish-year-old woman walking towards us, with more pep in her step than in ours combined. She was in full exercise gear, headband and all. We silently really appreciated the aesthetic. As she speed (sped?) walked by us, we must’ve had looks of distress or pain on our faces (like, yes, that’s very likely), because to our surprise, she looked at us and very motivationally yelled “PUSH IT PUSH IT.” Immediately, we both just grinned, because how can you not grin at that! It really made the rest of the walk great (despite the sand making it painful). We had some stale bread at home, so our mom decided to bring it with us on the walk to potentially feed some seagulls. We thought that maybe we’d feed like five. But boy oh boy did we feed more than five seagulls. There must’ve been 50! They were also kind of scary! They were INCHES away from our faces with their sharp beaks, literally screaming for the bread.         The day after Christmas, we saw a group of about 10 cats, lounging by the start of the path. This was strange, because we usually never see them there or together in such a large group. So our mom, surprised, said “Oh! They must be recovering from last night’s Christmas party!” Due to a cold front, it was a freezing 50 degrees Fahrenheit in Miami for a couple of days (yes, in Miami, water actually solidifies at that temperature). But that didn’t stop us! We put on three top layers and our mom’s sweatpants (because we didn’t pack well and left ours back on campus). When we got to the path, it literally felt like it was hailing sand. The wind was so strong that it blew a whole bunch of it in the air. Yeah, thats it, there isn’t a conclusion to this one. One day, the sky was very pretty : )       We were about to go walking without our mom, and before we left the apartment, our mom suggested one of us to use her fanny pack. It was because she didnt trust either of our clumsy-and-head-in-the-cloud selves with holding keys (and we knew this), but Allan, who called dibs, was still extra excited to wear it! It ended up being super comfortable and convenient, and even fit a phone! Such functionality deserved its own  snippet. We went on a pretty late speed walk with our mom. It was almost completely dark and by the time we made it halfway through, it became completely dark. As we passed by a looser patch of trees, we saw a huge, yellow, semi-orb setting on the water. We soon realized it was actually rising, and that it was a Supermoon! (The picture really doesnt do it justice.) We just stopped for a little and watched it. Our mom then took her headphones out of her phone, and her Russian music began playing on speaker. Logically, we proceeded to dance sillily (hopefully thats an actual adverb). It was one of those spontaneous and fun moments that you know you don’t want to forget. When initially thought of, this blog was going to be only a list of cute/memorable speed walking stories. But we think we’ll tag on this analogy, because it seems fitting. It often feels like you are speed walking at MIT (like beyond the *literal* shuffle-shuffle-im-so-cold-and-need-to-get-inside speed walk). Work piles up from essays to psets to projects to clubs to urops, and often, it feels like the only way to keep up with it all is by speed walking through it, by maintaining a pace that will ensure you get everything done, but not one that will burn you out. Sometimes, you have to speed up a little, 1.5x speed online lectures to get through them all, go into a sprint, run from the student center with your lunch in hand to class. Other times, you can slow down, and take the time to stretch you arms in the air, that extra hour of sleep, savor the feeling of your entire foot planting on the ground, and savor that extra moment in the lounge with your friends. Sometimes, the person you’re speed walking with gains speed that you don’t, and you try to catch up to them with everything you’ve got. But you’re really struggling to run, and you’re friend sees that. They will run back to you, and walk you through that pset question at your own pace. Sometimes, you’ll decide to take a break from your speed walk, marvel at the scenery, feel grateful that you are at MIT, breathe in the ocean air under the moonlight, and talk with your friend about life and stuff at 1am. Sometimes you’ll find yourself speed walking on sand. You didn’t realize it would be as hard as it actually is, but you keep going at it. And just when you are about to give up, you’ll find that there is someone there to give you that extra “PUSH IT” you need, or that extra comfort you need, or that shoulder to cry on. We don’t have any plans for the first half of IAP, so we’ll just keep speed walking in preparation for spring semester. Post Tagged #photography

Sexuality, Gender, Masculinity And Status - 1334 Words

In ancient Rome there was no notion of sexuality because sexuality is a modern concept, so there was no term for labeling one’s sexual preference. Instead, in ancient Rome, there was only sexual desire and inclination. Only specific sexual acts could be categorized and assessed because there was no term for a person’s sexual orientation as either homosexual or heterosexual. Humans inherently differ in sexual preferences in many ways. One of which is liking a specific sex of partners, yet this not necessarily the most significant difference in sexual preferences.1 In ancient Rome a male citizen could perform sex acts, under certain circumstances, with the gender he preferred, without fear of ridicule. Society was less concerned with the gender or age of a man’s sexual partners than with the perception of the masculinity of all male partners involved. Other things were more important than gender when it came to sex, such as penetration, masculinity and status. To exemplify that society was less concerned with the gender of a man’s sexual partners than the perception of masculinity, I will evaluate masculinity in ancient Rome, the social hierarchy of being the receptive versus penetrative partner, laws, cinaedus, effeminacy and pathics, pederasty, slavery and prostitution. The perception of men’s masculinity was such an integral part of Roman society that it was insulting to be considered not masculine if you were a freeborn man. The reason for Roman society’s obsession withShow MoreRelatedSexuality Is Defined By Sexual Orientation1538 Words   |  7 PagesSexuality is defined by â€Å"sexual orientation or preference† as well as the ability to understand the capacity of sexual desires. Same sex sexuality refers to sexual orientation also, but one’s preference towards someone of their same gender and the â€Å"erotic thoughts, feelings and behaviours† they assign to those of the same sex. Cultural ly, same sex sexuality is not always based on sexual ideals, acts that could be defined as being homosexual and appealing to those with same sex sexuality, oftenRead MoreWestern Culture s Ideal Beauty Type963 Words   |  4 Pagesthe product advertised, the commercial also reinforces traditional views of masculinity, sexuality and beauty. Through the depiction of the man as the womanizing, adventurer and the woman as a passive, sexual being the Axe Campaign uses conventional portrayals of gender roles in order to sell their product. In this paper, the commercial will be analyzed as it supports traditional views on beauty, sexuality and masculinity. This advertisement reinforces the western culture s ideal beauty type. TheRead MoreEssay Gender and Sexuality1240 Words   |  5 Pages Gender has been around throughout history; however, within recent years, gender has separated itself from the traditional view of sex, e.i., male or female, and has become centered on ones masculinity or femininity. Of course gender is more than just ones masculinity or femininity, gender has become a way for one to describe, he or she, in a way in which they are different from everyone else. Gender has turned into a sense of identity, a way for one to feel different and fulfilledRead MoreGeek Masculinity And Its Effects On Society836 Words   |  4 Pagesclass boys to gain status by exalting their masculinity where they can have access to power, status, and prestige. As a result, subcultures glorify traits associated with males such as toughness, delinquency and bravery all the while demeaning traits associated with femininity. T his phenomenon is known as the cult of masculinity, which puts females into a â€Å"structured secondariness†. There is a male privilege among subculturists because of this cult of masculinity. Nerd masculinity in online gamingRead MoreBeing A Normal White American834 Words   |  4 Pagesfull performance of masculinity (or femininity). In their portrayals, the American characters’ masculinity or femininity are not fully performed due to their inability to achieve their roles in gender and sexuality. For instance, in season two, 38 years old bachelor, Jason who passed his ideal age to get married lives with his father without a proper job, only just re-selling used products on eBay. Until he met his partner, Cassia via Facebook, he remained his bachelor status for a long time withRead MoreReligion, Religion And Religion Essay1690 Words   |  7 Pagesone should be forced to live by what are claimed to be traditional norms and gender roles due to Christianity’s influence on society. We live in a society where one should be free to choose what religion they would like to practice or not and most of all, one should be free to express one’s sexuality without facing tragedies and feelings of oppression due to society’s rules, guidelines, regulations, definition of masculinity, and normality. In this paper, I will be analyzing both Kelly Oliver and JamesRead MoreThe, You re A Fag : Masculinity And Sexuality1399 Words   |  6 PagesWhat is masculinity? Answers m ay vary depending on who you may ask, C.J. Pascoe’s ethnography titled Dude, You’re A Fag: Masculinity and Sexuality in High School targets high school as being the important location where the term masculinity is asserted, defended and defined by the students who roam the halls of River High. High school is a difficult time for anyone, especially when we bring up the ideals of sexuality and gender identity, all topics which are explored in this ethnography. PascoeRead MoreHigh School : Gender And Gender Identity1681 Words   |  7 Pagesa challenging thing to deal with especially if sexuality and gender identity are in the process. Students who are male or female are exploring in a smart and insightful ways. During C.J. Pascoe’s eighteen months of observation in a racially assorted high school, â€Å"Dude, You re a Fag† shows new light on masculinity both as a field of meaning and as a set of social practices. C. J. Pascoe s unusual approach questions masculinity as not only a gender process but also a sexual one. She proves how theRead MoreExamining Sub-Cultures: The Goth Culture1665 Words   |  7 Pagesthat have been instilled in humanity, with the consideration that this varies across cultures. The paradigm between collective action and individual desire results in the formation of what is deemed socially acceptable, such as gender roles, sexual orientation, gender performance etc. â€Å"It is social norms that provide the constraints by which the interaction between the basic dyad of self and other is governed†¦social norms also provide the source of identity between the individual action, the completeRead MoreThe Feminization Of Love, By Francesca M. Cancian Essay1691 Words   |  7 Pagesthan men and puts pressure on men to maintain a standard of masculinity, just like in the 19th century. Below we will not only explore the â€Å"feminization of love† as discussed in class, but also expand on how it has made an impact on sexual expectations of men and women and how this relates to the sexual stigmatization of casual sex. In â€Å"The Feminization of Love† (1986), Francesca M. Cancian explains how the social construction of gender has manipulated the heterosexual, American perspective of love

The Definitive Solution for Problem and Solution Essay Samples That You Can Learn About Today

The Definitive Solution for Problem and Solution Essay Samples That You Can Learn About Today Creating an essay isn't a very simple task that demands time, patience, and knowledge. Immigration ought to be encouraged, not prohibited, in order to increase diversity. The cost of an essay is dependent upon the total amount of effort the writer has to exert. Let's take a quick glance at some of the most fascinating problem solution essay topics for students that will assist you in writing an essay. You have discovered the topic you want, and now you may begin describing it. If you aren't interested in the subject, writing about it is going to look like it takes forever so find something which you like. You just need to ask the proper questions! When you get a strong thesis, the next thing to do is to compose an introduction paragraph. All you will need is a simple topic. Top Problem and Solution Essay Samples Choices In summary, the only long-term remedy to the issue of online crime is greater international cooperation. Always offer you concrete solution and expound to your reader why it's the ideal solution. Your reader ought to know that your solution is not just the best from any other solution. however, it is affordable, feasible etc.. Since the issue is global is scale, the solution also has to be global. You should create a note of the key causes and potential solutions. When you're so focused on the issue, your vibration is on the issue. When you have to make an issue and solution essay, it's important to get a very clear plan to earn good work. Problem solution essay traditionally includes the way of solving any type of problem where the writer attempts to analyze some circumstance or issue, then he or she specifies a particular problem, and it's required to supply some type of solution or even several of them. Problem solution essays are a favorite type of persuasion. An excellent problem solution essay will propose a solution that could be put into place somewhat easily and will, obviously, solve the issue. The Advantages of Problem and Solution Essay Samples If there's absolutely no pain, your son or daughter will answer No. If you are thinking about if you are experiencing symptoms of an anxiety disorder, or whether you are having troubling symptoms of any type, consult a healthcare provider to explore approaches to help yourself. There are a lot of problems, even on your own campus, which should be resolv ed. Another important problem is the development of internet fraud and hacking. There are poor people all over the world. The number of individuals who dwell in poverty is increasing around the world. Increasingly more of us go to tourist hot spots whenever there is a national holiday. The primary problem faced by poorer countries because of the brain-drain, in fields like medicine and education, is they will struggle to come up with and find it troublesome to boost their economy in addition to living conditions. You simply need a couple of problems as remember you don't have a lot of time and you want to spell out the issues. To the majority of disciplines and professions, problem solving is a simple method of thinking. The defined problem should be shown in the introductory paragraph. For example, telling readers they're to blame if they do nothing to address the predicament is a sure-fire means to lose readers. Future results of the problem can be utilized as leverage for the call to action. When you explain the matter, do not neglect to indicate the peculiar causes you wish to convince the reader about. You are able to also use your private experience or the experiences of men and women you know as a descriptive introduction to the issue. Traumatic experiences can literally alter the way that your brain works.

Chapter 31 The Third Task Free Essays

string(40) " those spells they had already learned\." â€Å"Dumbledore reckons You-Know-Who’s getting stronger again as well?† Ron whispered. Everything Harry had seen in the Pensieve, nearly everything Dumbledore had told and shown him afterward, he had now shared with Ron and Hermione – and, of course, with Sirius, to whom Harry had sent an owl the moment he had left Dumbledore’s office. Harry, Ron, and Hermione sat up late in the common room once again that night, talking it all over until Harry’s mind was reeling, until he understood what Dumbledore had meant about a head becoming so full of thoughts that it would have been a relief to siphon them off. We will write a custom essay sample on Chapter 31 The Third Task or any similar topic only for you Order Now Ron stared into the common room fire. Harry thought he saw Ron shiver slightly, even though the evening was warm. â€Å"And he trusts Snape?† Ron said. â€Å"He really trusts Snape, even though he knows he was a Death Eater?† â€Å"Yes,† said Harry. Hermione had not spoken for ten minutes. She was sitting with her forehead in her hands, staring at her knees. Harry thought she too looked as though she could have done with a Pensieve. â€Å"Rita Skeeter,† she muttered finally. â€Å"How can you be worrying about her now?† said Ron, in utter disbelief. â€Å"I’m not worrying about her,† Hermione said to her knees. â€Å"I’m just thinking†¦remember what she said to me in the Three Broomsticks? ‘I know things about Ludo Bagman that would make your hair curl. ‘ This is what she meant, isn’t it? She reported his trial, she knew he’d passed information to the Death Eaters. And Winky too, remember†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢Ludo Bagman’s a bad wizard.’ Mr. Crouch would have been furious he got off, he would have talked about it at home.† â€Å"Yeah, but Bagman didn’t pass information on purpose, did he?† Hermione shrugged. â€Å"And Fudge reckons Madame Maxime attacked Crouch?† Ron said, turning back to Harry. â€Å"Yeah,† said Harry, â€Å"but he’s only saying that because Crouch disappeared near the Beauxbatons carriage.† â€Å"We never thought of her, did we?† said Ron slowly. â€Å"Mind you, she’s definitely got giant blood, and she doesn’t want to admit it-â€Å" â€Å"Of course she doesn’t,† said Hermione sharply, looking up. â€Å"Look what happened to Hagrid when Rita found out about his mother. Look at Fudge, jumping to conclusions about her, just because she’s part giant. Who needs that sort of prejudice? I’d probably say I had big bones if I knew that’s what I’d get for telling the truth.† Hermione looked at her watch. â€Å"We haven’t done any practicing!† she said, looking shocked. â€Å"We were going to do the Impediment Curse! We’ll have to really get down to it tomorrow! Come on. Harry, you need to get some sleep.† Harry and Ron went slowly upstairs to their dormitory. As Harry pulled on his pajamas, he looked over at Neville’s bed. True to his word to Dumbledore, he had not told Ron and Hermione about Neville’s parents. As Harry took off his glasses and climbed into his four-poster, he imagined how it must feel to have parents still living but unable to recognize you. He often got sympathy from strangers for being an orphan, but as he listened to Neville’s snores, he thought that Neville deserved it more than he did. Lying in the darkness, Harry felt a rush of anger and hate toward the people who had tortured Mr. and Mrs. Longbottom†¦.He remembered the jeers of the crowd as Crouch’s son and his companions had been dragged from the court by the dementors†¦.He understood how they had felt†¦.Then he remembered the milk-white face of the screaming boy and realized with a jolt that he had died a year later†¦. It was Voldemort, Harry thought, staring up at the canopy of his bed in the darkness, it all came back to Voldemort†¦.He was the one who had torn these families apart, who had ruined all these lives†¦. Ron and Hermione were supposed to be studying for their exams, which would finish on the day of the third task, but they were putting most of their efforts into helping Harry prepare. â€Å"Don’t worry about it,† Hermione said shortly when Harry pointed this out to them and said he didn’t mind practicing on his own for a while, â€Å"at least we’ll get top marks in Defense Against the Dark Arts. We’d never have found out about all these hexes in class.† â€Å"Good training for when we’re all Aurors,† said Ron excitedly, attempting the Impediment Curse on a wasp that had buzzed into the room and making it stop dead in midair. The mood in the castle as they entered June became excited and tense again. Everyone was looking forward to the third task, which would take place a week before the end of term. Harry was practicing hexes at every available moment. He felt more confident about this task than either of the others. Difficult and dangerous though it would undoubtedly be, Moody was right: Harry had managed to find his way past monstrous creatures and enchanted barriers before now, and this time he had some notice, some chance to prepare himself for what lay ahead. Tired of walking in on Harry, Hermione, and Ron all over the school. Professor McGonagall had given them permission to use the empty Transfiguration classroom at lunchtimes. Harry had soon mastered the Impediment Curse, a spell to slow down and obstruct attackers; the Reductor Curse, which would enable him to blast solid objects out of his way; and the Four-Point Spell, a useful discovery of Hermione’s that would make his wand point due north, therefore enabling him to check whether he was going in the right direction within the maze. He was still having trouble with the Shield Charm, though. This was supposed to cast a temporary, invisible wall around himself that deflected minor curses; Hermione managed to shatter it with a well-placed Jelly-Legs Jinx, and Harry wobbled around the room for ten minutes afterward before she had looked up the counter-jinx. â€Å"You’re still doing really well, though,† Hermione said encouragingly, looking down her list and crossing off those spells they had already learned. You read "Chapter 31 The Third Task" in category "Essay examples" â€Å"Some of these are bound to come in handy.† â€Å"Come and look at this,† said Ron, who was standing by the window. He was staring down onto the grounds. â€Å"What’s Malfoy doing?† Harry and Hermione went to see. Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were standing in the shadow of a tree below. Crabbe and Goyle seemed to be keeping a lookout; both were smirking. Malfoy was holding his hand up to his mouth and speaking into it. â€Å"He looks like he’s using a walkie-talkie,† said Harry curiously. â€Å"He can’t be,† said Hermione, â€Å"I’ve told you, those sorts of things don’t work around Hogwarts. Come on, Harry,† she added briskly, turning away from the window and moving back into the middle of the room, â€Å"let’s try that Shield Charm again.† Sirius was sending daily owls now. Like Hermione, he seemed to want to concentrate on getting Harry through the last task before they concerned themselves with anything else. He reminded Harry in every letter that whatever might be going on outside the walls of Hogwarts was not Harry’s responsibility, nor was it within his power to influence it. If Voldemort is really getting stronger again, he wrote, my priority is to ensure your safety. He cannot hope to lay hands on you while you are under Dumbledore’s protection, but all the same, take no risks: Concentrate on getting through that maze safely, and then we can turn our attention to other matters. Harry’s nerves mounted as June the twenty-fourth drew closer, but they were not as bad as those he had felt before the first and second tasks. For one thing, he was confident that, this time, he had done everything in his power to prepare for the task. For another, this was the final hurdle, and however well or badly he did, the tournament would at last be over, which would be an enormous relief. Breakfast was a very noisy affair at the Gryffindor table on the morning of the third task. The post owls appeared, bringing Harry a good-luck card from Sirius. It was only a piece of parchment, folded over and bearing a muddy paw print on its front, but Harry appreciated it all the same. A screech owl arrived for Hermione, carrying her morning copy of the Daily Prophet as usual. She unfolded the paper, glanced at the front page, and spat out a mouthful of pumpkin juice all over it. â€Å"What?† said Harry and Ron together, staring at her. â€Å"Nothing,† said Hermione quickly, trying to shove the paper out of sight, but Ron grabbed it. He stared at the headline and said, â€Å"No way. Not today. That old cow.† â€Å"What?† said Harry. â€Å"Rita Skeeter again?† â€Å"No,† said Ron, and just like Hermione, he attempted to push the paper out of sight. â€Å"It’s about me, isn’t it?† said Harry. â€Å"No,† said Ron, in an entirely unconvincing tone. But before Harry could demand to see the paper. Draco Malfoy shouted across the Great Hall from the Slytherin table. â€Å"Hey, Potter! Potter! How’s your head? You feeling all right? Sure you’re not going to go berserk on us?† Malfoy was holding a copy of the Daily Prophet too. Slytherins up and down the table were sniggering, twisting in their seats to see Harry’s reaction. â€Å"Let me see it,† Harry said to Ron. â€Å"Give it here.† Very reluctantly, Ron handed over the newspaper. Harry turned it over and found himself staring at his own picture, beneath the banner headline: â€Å"HARRY POTTER† â€Å"DISTURBED AND DANGEROUS† The boy who defeated He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named is unstable and possibly dangerous, writes Rita Skeeter, Special Correspondent. Alarming evidence has recently come to light about Harry Potter’s strange behavior, which casts doubts upon his suitability to compete in a demanding competition like the Triwizard Tournament, or even to attend Hogwarts School. Potter, the Daily Prophet can exclusively reveal, regularly collapses at school, and is often heard to complain of pain in the scar on his forehead (relic of the curse with which You-Know-Who attempted to kill him). On Monday last, midway through a Divination lesson, your Daily Prophet reporter witnessed Potter storming from the class, claiming that his scar was hurting too badly to continue studying. It is possible, say top experts at St. Mungo’s Hospital for Magical Maladies and Injuries, that Potters brain was affected by the attack inflicted upon him by You-Know-Who, and that his insistence that the scar is still hurting is an expression of his deep-seated confusion. â€Å"He might even be pretending,† said one specialist. â€Å"This could be a plea for attention.† The Daily Prophet, however, has unearthed worrying facts about Harry Potter that Albus Dumbledore, Headmaster of Hogwarts, has carefully concealed from the wizarding public. â€Å"Potter can speak Parseltongue,† reveals Draco Malfoy, a Hogwarts fourth year. â€Å"There were a lot of attacks on students a couple of years ago, and most people thought Potter was behind them after they saw him lose his temper at a dueling club and set a snake on another boy. It was all hushed up, though. But he’s made friends with werewolves and giants too. We think he’d do anything for a bit of power.† Parseltongue, the ability to converse with snakes, has long been considered a Dark Art. Indeed, the most famous Parselmouth of our times is none other than You-Know-Who himself. A member of the Dark Force Defense League, who wished to remain unnamed, stated that he would regard any wizard who could speak Parseltongue â€Å"as worthy of investigation. Personally, I would be highly suspicious of anybody who could converse with snakes, as serpents are often used in the worst kinds of Dark Magic, and are historically associated with evildoers.† Similarly, â€Å"anyone who seeks out the company of such vicious creatures as werewolves and giants would appear to have a fondness for violence.† Albus Dumbledore should surely consider whether a boy such as this should be allowed to compete in the Triwizard Tournament. Some fear that Potter might resort to the Dark Arts in his desperation to win the tournament, the third task of which takes place this evening. â€Å"Gone off me a bit, hasn’t she?† said Harry lightly, folding up the paper. Over at the Slytherin table, Malfoy, Crabbe, and Goyle were laughing at him, tapping their heads with their fingers, pulling grotesquely mad faces, and waggling their tongues like snakes. â€Å"How did she know your scar hurt in Divination?† Ron said. â€Å"There’s no way she was there, there’s no way she could’ve heard -â€Å" â€Å"The window was open,† said Harry. â€Å"I opened it to breathe.† â€Å"You were at the top of North Tower!† Hermione said. â€Å"Your voice couldn’t have carried all the way down to the grounds!† â€Å"Well, you’re the one who’s supposed to be researching magical methods of bugging!† said Harry. â€Å"You tell me how she did it!† â€Å"I’ve been trying!† said Hermione. â€Å"But I†¦but†¦Ã¢â‚¬  An odd, dreamy expression suddenly came over Hermione’s face. She slowly raised a hand and ran her fingers through her hair. â€Å"Are you all right?† said Ron, frowning at her. â€Å"Yes,† said Hermione breathlessly. She ran her fingers through her hair again, and then held her hand up to her mouth, as though speaking into an invisible walkie-talkie. Harry and Ron stared at each other. â€Å"I’ve had an idea,† Hermione said, gazing into space. â€Å"I think I know†¦because then no one would be able to see†¦even Moody†¦and she’d have been able to get onto the window ledge†¦but she’s not allowed†¦she’s definitely not allowed†¦I think we’ve got her! Just give me two seconds in the library – just to make sure!† With that, Hermione seized her school bag and dashed out of the Great Hall. â€Å"Oi!† Ron called after her. â€Å"We’ve got our History of Magic exam in ten minutes! Blimey,† he said, turning back to Harry, â€Å"she must really hate that Skeeter woman to risk missing the start of an exam. What’re you going to do in Binns’s class – read again?† Exempt from the end-of-term tests as a Triwizard champion, Harry had been sitting in the back of every exam class so far, looking up fresh hexes for the third task. â€Å"S’pose so,† Harry said to Ron; but just then. Professor McGonagall came walking alongside the Gryffindor table toward him. â€Å"Potter, the champions are congregating in the chamber off the Hall after breakfast,† she said. â€Å"But the task’s not till tonight!† said Harry, accidentally spilling scrambled eggs down his front, afraid he had mistaken the time. â€Å"I’m aware of that, Potter,† she said. â€Å"The champions’ families are invited to watch the final task, you know. This is simply a chance for you to greet them.† She moved away. Harry gaped after her. â€Å"She doesn’t expect the Dursleys to turn up, does she?† he asked Ron blankly. â€Å"Dunno,† said Ron. â€Å"Harry, I’d better hurry, I’m going to be late for Binns. See you later.† Harry finished his breakfast in the emptying Great Hall. He saw Fleur Delacour get up from the Ravenclaw table and join Cedric as he crossed to the side chamber and entered. Krum slouched off to join them shortly afterward. Harry stayed where he was. He really didn’t want to go into the chamber. He had no family – no family who would turn up to see him risk his life, anyway. But just as he was getting up, thinking that he might as well go up to the library and do a spot more hex research, the door of the side chamber opened, and Cedric stuck his head out. â€Å"Harry, come on, they’re waiting for you!† Utterly perplexed. Harry got up. The Dursleys couldn’t possibly be here, could they? He walked across the Hall and opened the door into the chamber. Cedric and his parents were just inside the door. Viktor Krum was over in a corner, conversing with his dark-haired mother and father in rapid Bulgarian. He had inherited his fathers hooked nose. On the other side of the room, Fleur was jabbering away in French to her mother. Fleur’s little sister, Gabrielle, was holding her mother’s hand. She waved at Harry, who waved back, grinning. Then he saw Mrs. Weasley and Bill standing in front of the fireplace, beaming at him. â€Å"Surprise!† Mrs. Weasley said excitedly as he smiled broadly and walked over to them. â€Å"Thought we’d come and watch you. Harry!† She bent down and kissed him on the cheek. â€Å"You all right?† said Bill, grinning at Harry and shaking his hand. â€Å"Charlie wanted to come, but he couldn’t get time off. He said you were incredible against the Horntail.† Fleur Delacour, Harry noticed, was eyeing Bill with great interest over her mother’s shoulder. Harry could tell she had no objection whatsoever to long hair or earrings with fangs on them. â€Å"This is really nice of you,† Harry muttered to Mrs. Weasley. â€Å"I thought for a moment – the Dursleys -â€Å" â€Å"Hmm,† said Mrs. Weasley, pursing her lips. She had always refrained from criticizing the Dursleys in front of Harry, but her eyes flashed every time they were mentioned. â€Å"It’s great being back here,† said Bill, looking around the chamber (Violet, the Fat Lady’s friend, winked at him from her frame). â€Å"Haven’t seen this place for five years. Is that picture of the mad knight still around? Sir Cadogan?† â€Å"Oh yeah,† said Harry, who had met Sir Cadogan the previous year. â€Å"And the Fat Lady?† said Bill. â€Å"She was here in my time,† said Mrs. Weasley. â€Å"She gave me such a telling off one night when I got back to the dormitory at four in the morning -â€Å" â€Å"What were you doing out of your dormitory at four in the morning?† said Bill, surveying his mother with amazement. Mrs. Weasley grinned, her eyes twinkling. â€Å"Your father and I had been for a nighttime stroll,† she said. â€Å"He got caught by Apollyon Pringle – he was the caretaker in those days – your father’s still got the marks.† â€Å"Fancy giving us a tour, Harry?† said Bill. â€Å"Yeah, okay,† said Harry, and they made their way back toward the door into the Great Hall. As they passed Amos Diggory, he looked around. â€Å"There you are, are you?† he said, looking Harry up and down. â€Å"Bet you’re not feeling quite as full of yourself now Cedric’s caught you up on points, are you?† â€Å"What?† said Harry. â€Å"Ignore him,† said Cedric in a low voice to Harry, frowning after his father. â€Å"He’s been angry ever since Rita Skeeter’s article about the Triwizard Tournament – you know, when she made out you were the only Hogwarts champion.† â€Å"Didn’t bother to correct her, though, did he?† said Amos Diggory, loudly enough for Harry to hear as he started to walk out of the door with Mrs. Weasley and Bill. â€Å"Still,†¦you’ll show him, Ced. Beaten him once before, haven’t you?† â€Å"Rita Skeeter goes out of her way to cause trouble, Amos!† Mrs. Weasley said angrily. â€Å"I would have thought you’d know that, working at the Ministry!† Mr. Diggory looked as though he was going to say something angry, but his wife laid a hand on his arm, and he merely shrugged and turned away. Harry had a very enjoyable morning walking over the sunny grounds with Bill and Mrs. Weasley, showing them the Beauxbatons carriage and the Durmstrang ship. Mrs. Weasley was intrigued by the Whomping Willow, which had been planted after she had left school, and reminisced at length about the gamekeeper before Hagrid, a man called Ogg. â€Å"How’s Percy?† Harry asked as they walked around the greenhouses. â€Å"Not good,† said Bill. â€Å"He’s very upset,† said Mrs. Weasley, lowering her voice and glancing around. â€Å"The Ministry wants to keep Mr. Crouch’s disappearance quiet, but Percy’s been hauled in for questioning about the instructions Mr. Crouch has been sending in. They seem to think there’s a chance they weren’t genuinely written by him. Percy’s been under a lot of strain. They’re not letting him fill in for Mr. Crouch as the fifth judge tonight. Cornelius Fudge is going to be doing it.† They returned to the castle for lunch. â€Å"Mum – Bill!† said Ron, looking stunned, as he joined the Gryffindor table. â€Å"What’re you doing here?† â€Å"Come to watch Harry in the last task!† said Mrs. Weasley brightly. â€Å"I must say, it makes a lovely change, not having to cook. How was your exam?† â€Å"Oh†¦okay,† said Ron. â€Å"Couldn’t remember all the goblin rebels’ names, so I invented a few. It’s all right,† he said, helping himself to a Cornish pasty, while Mrs. Weasley looked stern, â€Å"they’re all called stuff like Bodrod the Bearded and Urg the Unclean; it wasn’t hard.† Fred, George, and Ginny came to sit next to them too, and Harry was having such a good time he felt almost as though he were back at the Burrow; he had forgotten to worry about that evening’s task, and not until Hermione turned up, halfway through lunch, did he remember that she had had a brainwave about Rita Skeeter. â€Å"Are you going to tell us -?† Hermione shook her head warningly and glanced at Mrs. Weasley. â€Å"Hello, Hermione,† said Mrs. Weasley, much more stiffly than usual. â€Å"Hello,† said Hermione, her smile faltering at the cold expression on Mrs. Weasley’s face. Harry looked between them, then said, â€Å"Mrs. Weasley, you didn’t believe that rubbish Rita Skeeter wrote in Witch Weekly, did you? Because Hermione’s not my girlfriend.† â€Å"Oh!† said Mrs. Weasley â€Å"No – of course I didn’t!† But she became considerably warmer toward Hermione after that. Harry, Bill, and Mrs. Weasley whiled away the afternoon with a long walk around the castle, and then returned to the Great Hall for the evening feast. Ludo Bagman and Cornelius Fudge had joined the staff table now. Bagman looked quite cheerful, but Cornelius Fudge, who was sitting next to Madame Maxime, looked stern and was not talking. Madame Maxime was concentrating on her plate, and Harry thought her eyes looked red. Hagrid kept glancing along the table at her, There were more courses than usual, but Harry, who was starting to feel really nervous now, didn’t eat much. As the enchanted ceiling overhead began to fade from blue to a dusky purple, Dumbledore rose to his feet at the staff table, and silence fell. â€Å"Ladies and gentlemen, in five minutes’ time, I will be asking you to make your way down to the Quidditch field for the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament. Will the champions please follow Mr. Bagman down to the stadium now.† Harry got up. The Gryffindors all along the table were applauding him; the Weasleys and Hermione all wished him good luck, and he headed off out of the Great Hall with Cedric, Fleur, and Viktor. â€Å"Feeling all right. Harry?† Bagman asked as they went down the stone steps onto the grounds. â€Å"Confident?† â€Å"I’m okay,† said Harry. It was sort of true; he was nervous, but he kept running over all the hexes and spells he had been practicing in his mind as they walked, and the knowledge that he could remember them all made him feel better. They walked onto the Quidditch field, which was now completely unrecognizable. A twenty-foot-high hedge ran all the way around the edge of it. There was a gap right in front of them: the entrance to the vast maze. The passage beyond it looked dark and creepy. Five minutes later, the stands had begun to fill; the air was full of excited voices and the rumbling of feet as the hundreds of students filed into their seats. The sky was a deep, clear blue now, and the first stars were starting to appear. Hagrid, Professor Moody, Professor McGonagall, and Professor Flitwick came walking into the stadium and approached Bagman and the champions. They were wearing large, red, luminous stars on their hats, all except Hagrid, who had his on the back of his moleskin vest. â€Å"We are going to be patrolling the outside of the maze,† said Professor McGonagall to the champions. â€Å"If you get into difficulty, and wish to be rescued, send red sparks into the air, and one of us will come and get you, do you understand?† The champions nodded. â€Å"Off you go, then!† said Bagman brightly to the four patrollers. â€Å"Good luck. Harry,† Hagrid whispered, and the four of them walked away in different directions, to station themselves around the maze. Bagman now pointed his wand at his throat, muttered, â€Å"Sonorus,† and his magically magnified voice echoed into the stands. â€Å"Ladies and gentlemen, the third and final task of the Triwizard Tournament is about to begin! Let me remind you how the points currently stand! Tied in first place, with eighty-five points each – Mr. Cedric Diggory and Mr. Harry Potter, both of Hogwarts School!† The cheers and applause sent birds from the Forbidden Forest fluttering into the darkening sky. â€Å"In second place, with eighty points – Mr. Viktor Krum, of Durmstrang Institute!† More applause. â€Å"And in third place – Miss Fleur Delacour, of Beauxbatons Academy!† Harry could just make out Mrs. Weasley, Bill, Ron, and Hermione applauding Fleur politely, halfway up the stands. He waved up at them, and they waved back, beaming at him. â€Å"So†¦on my whistle, Harry and Cedric!† said Bagman. â€Å"Three – two – one -â€Å" He gave a short blast on his whistle, and Harry and Cedric hurried forward into the maze. The towering hedges cast black shadows across the path, and, whether because they were so tall and thick or because they had been enchanted, the sound of the surrounding crowd was silenced the moment they entered the maze. Harry felt almost as though he were underwater again. He pulled out his wand, muttered, â€Å"Lumos,† and heard Cedric do the same just behind him. After about fifty yards, they reached a fork. They looked at each other. â€Å"See you,† Harry said, and he took the left one, while Cedric took the right. Harry heard Bagman’s whistle for the second time. Krum had entered the maze. Harry sped up. His chosen path seemed completely deserted. He turned right, and hurried on, holding his wand high over his head, trying to see as far ahead as possible. Still, there was nothing in sight. Bagman’s whistle blew in the distance for the third time. All of the champions were now inside. Harry kept looking behind him. The old feeling that he was being watched was upon him. The maze was growing darker with every passing minute as the sky overhead deepened to navy. He reached a second fork. â€Å"Point Me,† he whispered to his wand, holding it flat in his palm. The wand spun around once and pointed toward his right, into solid hedge. That way was north, and he knew that he needed to go northwest for the center of the maze. The best he could do was to take the left fork and go right again as soon as possible. The path ahead was empty too, and when Harry reached a right turn and took it, he again found his way unblocked. Harry didn’t know why, but the lack of obstacles was unnerving him. Surely he should have met something by now? It felt as though the maze were luring him into a false sense of security. Then he heard movement right behind him. He held out his wand, ready to attack, but its beam fell only upon Cedric, who had just hurried out of a path on the right-hand side. Cedric looked severely shaken. The sleeve of his robe was smoking. â€Å"Hagrid’s Blast-Ended Skrewts!† he hissed. â€Å"They’re enormous – I only just got away!† He shook his head and dived out of sight, along another path. Keen to put plenty of distance between himself and the skrewts, Harry hurried off again. Then, as he turned a corner, he saw†¦a dementor gliding toward him. Twelve feet tall, its face hidden by its hood, its rotting, scabbed hands outstretched, it advanced, sensing its way blindly toward him. Harry could hear its rattling breath; he felt clammy coldness stealing over him, but knew what he had to do†¦. He summoned the happiest thought he could, concentrated with all his might on the thought of getting out of the maze and celebrating with Ron and Hermione, raised his wand, and cried, â€Å"Expecto Patronum!† A silver stag erupted from the end of Harry’s wand and galloped toward the dementor, which fell back and tripped over the hem of its robes†¦.Harry had never seen a dementor stumble. â€Å"Hang on!† he shouted, advancing in the wake of his silver Patronus, â€Å"You’re a boggart! Riddikulus!† There was a loud crack, and the shape-shifter exploded in a wisp of smoke. The silver stag faded from sight. Harry wished it could have stayed, he could have used some company†¦but he moved on, quickly and quietly as possible, listening hard, his wand held high once more. Left†¦right†¦left again†¦Twice he found himself facing dead ends. He did the Four-Point Spell again and found that he was going too far east. He turned back, took a right turn, and saw an odd golden mist floating ahead of him. Harry approached it cautiously, pointing the wand’s beam at it. This looked like some kind of enchantment. He wondered whether he might be able to blast it out of the way. â€Å"Reducio!† he said. The spell shot straight through the mist, leaving it intact. He supposed he should have known better; the Reductor Curse was for solid objects. What would happen if he walked through the mist? Was it worth chancing it, or should he double back? He was still hesitating when a scream shattered the silence. â€Å"Fleur?† Harry yelled. There was silence. He stared all around him. What had happened to her? Her scream seemed to have come from somewhere ahead. He took a deep breath and ran through the enchanted mist. The world turned upside down. Harry was hanging from the ground, with his hair on end, his glasses dangling off his nose, threatening to fall into the bottomless sky. He clutched them to the end of his nose and hung there, terrified. It felt as though his feet were glued to the grass, which had now become the ceiling. Below him the dark, star-spangled heavens stretched endlessly. He felt as though if he tried to move one of his feet, he would fall away from the earth completely. Think, he told himself, as all the blood rushed to his head, think†¦ But not one of the spells he had practiced had been designed to combat a sudden reversal of ground and sky. Did he dare move his foot? He could hear the blood pounding in his ears. He had two choices – try and move, or send up red sparks, and get rescued and disqualified from the task. He shut his eyes, so he wouldn’t be able to see the view of endless space below him, and pulled his right foot as hard as he could away from the grassy ceiling. Immediately, the world righted itself. Harry fell forward onto his knees onto the wonderfully solid ground. He felt temporarily limp with shock. He took a deep, steadying breath, then got up again and hurried forward, looking back over his shoulder as he ran away from the golden mist, which twinkled innocently at him in the moonlight. He paused at a junction of two paths and looked around for some sign of Fleur. He was sure it had been she who had screamed. What had she met? Was she all right? There was no sign of red sparks – did that mean she had got herself out of trouble, or was she in such trouble that she couldn’t reach her wand? Harry took the right fork with a feeling of increasing unease†¦but at the same time, he couldn’t help thinking. One champion down†¦ The cup was somewhere close by, and it sounded as though Fleur was no longer in the running. He’d got this far, hadn’t he? What if he actually managed to win? Fleetingly, and for the first time since he’d found himself champion, he saw again that image of himself, raising the Triwizard Cup in front of the rest of the school†¦. He met nothing for ten minutes, but kept running into dead ends. Twice he took the same wrong turning. Finally, he found a new route and started to jog along it, his wandlight waving, making his shadow flicker and distort on the hedge walls. Then he rounded another corner and found himself facing a Blast-Ended Skrewt. Cedric was right – it was enormous. Ten feet long, it looked more like a giant scorpion than anything. Its long sting was curled over its back. Its thick armor glinted in the light from Harry’s wand, which he pointed at it. â€Å"Stupefy!† The spell hit the skrewt’s armor and rebounded; Harry ducked just in time, but could smell burning hair; it had singed the top of his head. The skrewt issued a blast of fire from its end and flew forward toward him. â€Å"Impedimenta!† Harry yelled. The spell hit the skrewt’s armor again and ricocheted off; Harry staggered back a few paces and fell over. â€Å"IMPEDIMENTA!† The skrewt was inches from him when it froze – he had managed to hit it on its fleshy, shell-less underside. Panting, Harry pushed himself away from it and ran, hard, in the opposite direction – the Impediment Curse was not permanent; the skrewt would be regaining the use of its legs at any moment. He took a left path and hit a dead end, a right, and hit another; forcing himself to stop, heart hammering, he performed the Four-Point Spell again, backtracked, and chose a path that would take him northwest. He had been hurrying along the new path for a few minutes, when he heard something in the path running parallel to his own that made him stop dead. â€Å"What are you doing?† yelled Cedric’s voice. â€Å"What the hell d’you think you’re doing?† And then Harry heard Krum’s voice. â€Å"Crucio!† The air was suddenly full of Cedric’s yells. Horrified, Harry began sprinting up his path, trying to find a way into Cedric’s. When none appeared, he tried the Reductor Curse again. It wasn’t very effective, but it burned a small hole in the hedge through which Harry forced his leg, kicking at the thick brambles and branches until they broke and made an opening; he struggled through it, tearing his robes, and looking to his right, saw Cedric jerking and twitching on the ground, Krum standing over him. Harry pulled himself up and pointed his wand at Krum just as Krum looked up. Krum turned and began to run. â€Å"Stupefy!† Harry yelled. The spell hit Krum in the back; he stopped dead in his tracks, fell forward, and lay motionless, facedown in the grass. Harry-dashed over to Cedric, who had stopped twitching and was lying there panting, his hands over his face. â€Å"Are you all right?† Harry said roughly, grabbing Cedric’s arm. â€Å"Yeah,† panted Cedric. â€Å"Yeah†¦I don’t believe it†¦he crept up behind me†¦.I heard him, I turned around, and he had his wand on me†¦.† Cedric got up. He was still shaking. He and Harry looked down at Krum. â€Å"I can’t believe this†¦I thought he was all right,† Harry said, staring at Krum. â€Å"So did I,† said Cedric. â€Å"Did you hear Fleur scream earlier?† said Harry. â€Å"Yeah,† said Cedric. â€Å"You don’t think Krum got her too?† â€Å"I don’t know,† said Harry slowly. â€Å"Should we leave him here?† Cedric muttered. â€Å"No,† said Harry. â€Å"I reckon we should send up red sparks. Someone’ll come and collect him†¦otherwise he’ll probably be eaten by a skrewt.† â€Å"He’d deserve it,† Cedric muttered, but all the same, he raised his wand and shot a shower of red sparks into the air, which hovered high above Krum, marking the spot where he lay. Harry and Cedric stood there in the darkness for a moment, looking around them. Then Cedric said, â€Å"Well†¦I s’pose we’d better go on†¦.† â€Å"What?† said Harry. â€Å"Oh†¦yeah†¦right†¦Ã¢â‚¬  It was an odd moment. He and Cedric had been briefly united against Krum – now the fact that they were opponents came back to Harry. The two of them proceeded up the dark path without speaking, then Harry turned left, and Cedric right. Cedric’s footsteps soon died away. Harry moved on, continuing to use the Four-Point Spell, making sure he was moving in the right direction. It was between him and Cedric now. His desire to reach the cup first was now burning stronger than ever, but he could hardly believe what he’d just seen Krum do. The use of an Unforgivable Curse on a fellow human being meant a life term in Azkaban, that was what Moody had told them. Krum surely couldn’t have wanted the Triwizard Cup that badly†¦.Harry sped up. Every so often he hit more dead ends, but the increasing darkness made him feel sure he was getting near the heart of the maze. Then, as he strode down a long, straight path, he saw movement once again, and his beam of wandlight hit an extraordinary creature, one which he had only seen in picture form, in his Monster Book of Monsters. It was a sphinx. It had the body of an over-large lion: great clawed paws and a long yellowish tail ending in a brown tuft. Its head, however, was that of a woman. She turned her long, almond-shaped eyes upon Harry as he approached. He raised his wand, hesitating. She was not crouching as if to spring, but pacing from side to side of the path, blocking his progress. Then she spoke, in a deep, hoarse voice. â€Å"You are very near your goal. The quickest way is past me.† â€Å"So†¦so will you move, please?† said Harry, knowing what the answer was going to be. â€Å"No,† she said, continuing to pace. â€Å"Not unless you can answer my riddle. Answer on your first guess – I let you pass. Answer wrongly – I attack. Remain silent – I will let you walk away from me unscathed.† Harry’s stomach slipped several notches. It was Hermione who was good at this sort of thing, not him. He weighed his chances. If the riddle was too hard, he could keep silent, get away from the sphinx unharmed, and try and find an alternative route to the center. â€Å"Okay,† he said. â€Å"Can I hear the riddle?† The sphinx sat down upon her hind legs, in the very middle of the path, and recited: â€Å"First think of the person who lives in disguise, Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies. Next, tell me what’s always the last thing to mend, The middle of middle and end of the end? And finally give me the sound often heard During the search for a hard-to-find word. Now string them together, and answer me this, Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?† Harry gaped at her. â€Å"Could I have it again†¦more slowly?† he asked tentatively. She blinked at him, smiled, and repeated the poem. â€Å"All the clues add up to a creature I wouldn’t want to kiss?† Harry asked. She merely smiled her mysterious smile. Harry took that for a â€Å"yes.† Harry cast his mind around. There were plenty of animals he wouldn’t want to kiss; his immediate thought was a Blast-Ended Skrewt, but something told him that wasn’t the answer. He’d have to try and work out the clues†¦. â€Å"A person in disguise,† Harry muttered, staring at her, â€Å"who lies†¦er†¦that’d be a – an impostor. No, that’s not my guess! A – a spy? I’ll come back to that†¦could you give me the next clue again, please?† She repeated the next lines of the poem. â€Å"‘The last thing to mend,'† Harry repeated. â€Å"Er†¦no idea†¦Ã¢â‚¬â„¢middle of middle’†¦could I have the last bit again?† She gave him the last four lines. â€Å"‘The sound often heard during the search for a hard-to-find word,'† said Harry. â€Å"Er†¦that’d be†¦er†¦hang on – ‘er’! Er’s a sound!† The sphinx smiled at him. â€Å"Spy†¦er†¦spy†¦er†¦Ã¢â‚¬  said Harry, pacing up and down. â€Å"A creature I wouldn’t want to kiss†¦a spider!† The sphinx smiled more broadly. She got up, stretched her front legs, and then moved aside for him to pass. â€Å"Thanks!† said Harry, and, amazed at his own brilliance, he dashed forward. He had to be close now, he had to be†¦.His wand was telling him he was bang on course; as long as he didn’t meet anything too horrible, he might have a chance†¦. Harry broke into a run. He had a choice of paths up ahead. â€Å"Point Me!† he whispered again to his wand, and it spun around and pointed him to the right-hand one. He dashed up this one and saw light ahead. The Triwizard Cup was gleaming on a plinth a hundred yards away. Suddenly a dark figure hurtled out onto the path in front of him. Cedric was going to get there first. Cedric was sprinting as fast as he could toward the cup, and Harry knew he would never catch up, Cedric was much taller, had much longer legs – Then Harry saw something immense over a hedge to his left, moving quickly along a path that intersected with his own; it was moving so fast Cedric was about to run into it, and Cedric, his eyes on the cup, had not seen it – â€Å"Cedric!† Harry bellowed. â€Å"On your left!† Cedric looked around just in time to hurl himself past the thing and avoid colliding with it, but in his haste, he tripped. Harry saw Cedric’s wand fly out of his hand as a gigantic spider stepped into the path and began to bear down upon Cedric. â€Å"Stupefy!† Harry yelled; the spell hit the spider’s gigantic, hairy black body, but for all the good it did, he might as well have thrown a stone at it; the spider jerked, scuttled around, and ran at Harry instead. â€Å"Stupefy! Impedimenta! Stupefy!† But it was no use – the spider was either so large, or so magical, that the spells were doing no more than aggravating it. Harry had one horrifying glimpse of eight shining black eyes and razor-sharp pincers before it was upon him. He was lifted into the air in its front legs; struggling madly, he tried to kick it; his leg connected with the pincers and next moment he was in excruciating pain. He could hear Cedric yelling â€Å"Stupefy!† too, but his spell had no more effect than Harry’s – Harry raised his wand as the spider opened its pincers once more and shouted â€Å"Expelliarmus!† It worked – the Disarming Spell made the spider drop him, but that meant that Harry fell twelve feet onto his already injured leg, which crumpled beneath him. Without pausing to think, he aimed high at the spider’s underbelly, as he had done with the skrewt, and shouted â€Å"Stupefy!†just as Cedric yelled the same thing. The two spells combined did what one alone had not: The spider keeled over sideways, flattening a nearby hedge, and strewing the path with a tangle of hairy legs. â€Å"Harry!† he heard Cedric shouting. â€Å"You all right? Did it fall on you?† â€Å"No,† Harry called back, panting. He looked down at his leg. It was bleeding freely. He could see some sort of thick, gluey secretion from the spider’s pincers on his torn robes. He tried to get up, but his leg was shaking badly and did not want to support his weight. He leaned against the hedge, gasping for breath, and looked around. Cedric was standing feet from the Triwizard Cup, which was gleaming behind him. â€Å"Take it, then,† Harry panted to Cedric. â€Å"Go on, take it. You’re there.† But Cedric didn’t move. He merely stood there, looking at Harry. Then he turned to stare at the cup. Harry saw the longing expression on his face in its golden light. Cedric looked around at Harry again, who was now holding onto the hedge to support himself. Cedric took a deep breath. â€Å"You take it. You should win. That’s twice you’ve saved my neck in here.† â€Å"That’s not how it’s supposed to work,† Harry said. He felt angry; his leg was very painful, he was aching all over from trying to throw off the spider, and after all his efforts, Cedric had beaten him to it, just as he’d beaten Harry to ask Cho to the ball. â€Å"The one who reaches the cup first gets the points. That’s you. I’m telling you, I’m not going to win any races on this leg.† Cedric took a few paces nearer to the Stunned spider, away from the cup, shaking his head. â€Å"No,† he said. â€Å"Stop being noble,† said Harry irritably. â€Å"Just take it, then we can get out of here.† Cedric watched Harry steadying himself, holding tight to the hedge. â€Å"You told me about the dragons,† Cedric said. â€Å"I would’ve gone down in the first task if you hadn’t told me what was coming.† â€Å"I had help on that too,† Harry snapped, trying to mop up his bloody leg with his robes. â€Å"You helped me with the egg – we’re square.† â€Å"I had help on the egg in the first place,† said Cedric. â€Å"We’re still square,† said Harry, testing his leg gingerly; it shook violently as he put weight on it; he had sprained his ankle when the spider had dropped him. â€Å"You should’ve got more points on the second task,† said Cedric mulishly. â€Å"You stayed behind to get all the hostages. I should’ve done that.† â€Å"I was the only one who was thick enough to take that song seriously!† said Harry bitterly. â€Å"Just take the cup!† â€Å"No,† said Cedric. He stepped over the spider’s tangled legs to join Harry, who stared at him. Cedric was serious. He was walking away from the sort of glory Hufflepuff House hadn’t had in centuries. â€Å"Go on,† Cedric said. He looked as though this was costing him every ounce of resolution he had, but his face was set, his arms were folded, he seemed decided. Harry looked from Cedric to the cup. For one shining moment, he saw himself emerging from the maze, holding it. He saw himself holding the Triwizard Cup aloft, heard the roar of the crowd, saw Cho’s face shining with admiration, more clearly than he had ever seen it before†¦and then the picture faded, and he found himself staring at Cedric’s shadowy, stubborn face. â€Å"Both of us,† Harry said. â€Å"What?† â€Å"We’ll take it at the same time. It’s still a Hogwarts victory. We’ll tie for it.† Cedric stared at Harry. He unfolded his arms. â€Å"You – you sure?† â€Å"Yeah,† said Harry. â€Å"Yeah†¦we’ve helped each other out, haven’t we? We both got here. Let’s just take it together.† For a moment, Cedric looked as though he couldn’t believe his ears; then his face split in a grin. â€Å"You’re on,† he said. â€Å"Come here.† He grabbed Harry’s arm below the shoulder and helped Harry limp toward the plinth where the cup stood. When they had reached it, they both held a hand out over one of the cup’s gleaming handles. â€Å"On three, right?† said Harry. â€Å"One – two – three -â€Å" He and Cedric both grasped a handle. Instantly, Harry felt a jerk somewhere behind his navel. His feet had left the ground. He could not unclench the hand holding the Triwizard Cup; it was pulling him onward in a howl of wind and swirling color, Cedric at his side. How to cite Chapter 31 The Third Task, Essay examples

The Scary World of Malware in WordPress How It Affects Your Site

Malware is an umbrella term for malicious software used to leverage a sites weaknesses for various harmful activities. In the context of WordPress sites, malware in WordPress can affect a websites performance on every level, from the web server to the user experience, and even the sites SEO performance. So, if you are not paying attention to what is happening to your website now, it could be too late to save your site by the time you do.For that reason, keeping tabs on your websites performance and identifying changes as they happen is the first step towards building a secure WordPress site.From what we have seen, the ripple effects of a malware attack on your site take the following forms: A vast majority of the time, malware attacks go undetected because the purpose of such attacks is to use your server resources without drawing your attention. You can, however, detect if your website is being exploited by noting if your sites performance is lagging. You will notice that your site has slowed down suddenly.Perhaps youll see that your web server is unavailable for the visitors of your site because a majority of your server is being used to execute unwanted activities. We have come to notice that there are a number of other ways hacking affects your sites performance. We suggest, keeping an eye out for any sort of sudden changes in your website and acting immediately.Sending out spam emailsMail spam is unavoidable. Millions of spam reports are sent every day which accounts for 59.56% of traffic on the internet (as of September 2017).Hackers use compromised websites to send hundreds and thousands of spam emails for a number of purposes. Email servers around the world use different methods to deal with spam. They track the IPs of the servers sending out spam emails and blacklist them. Therefore, hackers are always on the lookout for IP addresses that have a clean record, meaning that the IPs are not blocked by popular email providers.In several cases, we have come across instances where a websites owners are completely unaware of what is happening until the host identifies somethings fishy and alerts them about it. By this time, it may be too late and domains are already blacklisted by spam watchdog services like Spamhaus.If your site is hacked and thousands of spam emails are being sent out using your server, your web host may also suspend your account until you clean it and remove all malware, which is one of the worst things that can happen to any website.Usage of large amount of disk spaceHackers can have various purposes in mind when they are accessing your site. Some hackers may have hacked your site to store millions of files. These files take up a large amount of your disk space. The burden of those unknown files tends to bog down your website.For those who dont know, unlimited hosting plans do have a limit. This can lead to situations where you are unable to add any content. Moreover, maintaining your site will become a challenge wi th a lot of unwanted files littered about the site. Also, your web server can suspend or ban your account due to malicious activities on your site.Slows down siteWhen your visitors make a request to load a page from your site, hackers may fetch files from other servers and load it along with your page. This can damage your sites performance because the whole process is time-consuming.2. Deterioration of user experience/browser performanceMalware in WordPress can affect how visitors see your website. The user experience of a website is important for the success of the site (or business). If your users are not happy with your sites performance, then they might not return to your site (or use your service if you are offering one).Websites become slowStudies show that the average attention span for human beings has shrunk from twelve seconds in 2000 to eight seconds in this digital era. Therefore, slow websites are bad for business.We discussed earlier how overuse of server resources s lows down your site. If your website takes too long to open, people are likely to hit the back button within a few seconds. That way, you will lose visitors before you get any. Also, it can have disastrous effects on online business like e-commerce sites. Amazon, the worlds largest retailer site can lose up to $1.6 billion in sales due to a seconds delay. In 2013, the giant retailer lost $66,240 per minute during a thirty minutes downtime.Load external Javascript/iFrame resourcesYou might have come across websites with shady pop-ups, usually on the top of the page asking you to go to a different site or make a purchase, etc.Its a little confusing because the pop up seems completely unrelated to what the site is about. The reality is that someone has hacked into that site and has inserted malicious Javascript/iFrame. So, every time someone tries to open the page, the malware gets loaded too, therefore increasing the time it takes to fully render a page. This makes the site slower. Fu rthermore, the visitors of the site are getting duped into making purchases and doing other unwanted things while riding on the sites credibility.Mining cryptocurrencyYou have probably heard of Bitcoin the most popular cryptocurrency. Its generated through a process called mining. Over the last couple of years, cryptocurrencies have been quietly gaining popularity and more and more people are buying and selling them.Because Bitcoin has shot up in price, its popular among hackers who want to get rich quick.Hackers  infect websites with malware  and install cryptocurrency miners. They use your visitors browsers to mine cryptocurrency every time they open your site. Your website could be one of these ill-fated sites. If you are experiencing a sudden change in your websites performance, then its possible that hackers are harnessing the power of your machines processor for the purpose of mining cryptocurrency.3. Degradation of SEO performanceSEO is one of the primary reasons website s get hacked. Google has clearly recognized SEO being a motivational factor in hacking so that your visitor is redirected to a malicious site.SEO spamming (commonly, the pharma hack)Pharma hacking is a very common phenomenon. On the web, there are restrictions on advertising illegal drugs like Viagra, Cialis, etc. Therefore, pharmaceutical sales websites resort to SEO spamming to get people to visit their site or make purchases. They often insert spammy keywords into posts and pages and cloak them from regular visitors.The SEO spam is only visible to web crawlers like Google-bots. Besides this, there are a few WordPress security services like  MalCare  (which Im the founder of) who are able to identify pharma hacks even in their hidden form.Its well noted that modifying a sites SEO structure will have a tremendous effect on your website. You will lose a chunk of your visitors along with your reputation and credibility. Your website too will experience a fall in ranking and there will be a major drop in the speed of your siteGoogle blacklistingGoogle is the biggest search engine on the web and aims to provide its users with the best user experience. Thousands of websites are blacklisted by the search engine giant on a daily basis. Many of these sites are legitimate businesses (like yours). Your website may seem like its adhering to Google guidelines and yet you are suddenly blacklisted.The blacklisting occurs often a result of malicious code being injected into the website without your permission. Once your WordPress site is blacklisted, your visitors wont be able to access your site. Google will prevent users from visiting a compromised site in order to protect their machine from getting infected.As a result of being blacklisted by Google, your website will be unreachable for days. It will negatively impact your SEO and you will end up losing search ranking, resulting in a fall in organic traffic. It will, unfortunately, also damage the reputation you had worked so hard to build.Over to youHave you been noticing a difference in your sites performance lately? Did you try finding out the cause? Tell us if you need any help in the comment section. About the author: Akshat Choudhary is the founder and CEO of BlogVault, MigrateGuru MalCare. He loves building products that solve real problems for real people, and has been building systems and products since 2005. His core beliefs behind building any product are to make sure the end-user doesnt need assistance and to assist them in the best possible manner if they need it.Free guide5 Essential Tips to Speed Up Your WordPress SiteReduce your loading time by even 50-80% just by following simple tips.