Positive And Negative Impacts Of Customer Relationship

Positive And Negative Impacts Of Customer Relationship In current economic conditions it is a basic requirement for a company to manage information. Anderson Kerr 2002, p.2 define Customer Relationship Management as a comprehensive approach for creating, maintaining and expanding customer relationships. It is vital that information is used effectively to acknowledge the customer needs. CRM is established for the improvement of the relationship between the customer and organisation. This improvement happens when a company establishes new relations with the new customers and also when it maintains its existing relationship with the customer. CRM existed in ancient times but only started to develop in recent years (Makeupmyname, 2009) It is explained that the development is mainly due to technological advances. Although there are other factors which influenced the recent development of CRM. As a business strategy CRM effectively organisies company resources in the department of sales, marketing, finance and HR (Get fast, Date Accessed 4th) This report will specifically look at the positive and negative impacts of Customer Relationship Management has upon the marketing function. Furthermore it will take a detailed look at the use of technology and business strategy. USE OF TECHNOLOGY EXPLAINING: According to Buttle (2004,p.34) Customer Relationship management (CRM) is a core business strategy that integrates processes, functions and external networks to create and deliver value to targeted customers at a profit. It is grounded on high quality customer data and enable by Information Technology (IT). Raab, et al. (2008) expands on this by stating that company carries on their existing business by finding the appropriate methods, technology and then delivering them to the customer in the best ways preferred to the customers requirements. This mainly includes the data which assists the company to know valuable information required for marketing the product to the customer. Information produced for purpose of CRM consists of customers behavior towards the company, transactions made from sales, web used by the customer for purchasing the product and contact of the customer for informing them about the new product and keeping relationships. Software technology helps the company to analyse the data for marketing the product and also for finding out which product is more preferred by their customer in the market (Smith, 2009) Software technology allows the company to analyse the data and keep the relationship with the customer. This form of technology assists the company to advertise their products online and also assists selling of the product through this software. In the contrast hardware technology is used for storing all kind of data used by the company about its customer. Hardware is described as a client-server with mainframe for data volumes by Mutch (2008,p. 92). IMPACT OF INFORMATION USE: By considering CRM as a technology, the incorporated usage of Information Communication Technology (ICT), Information Technology (IT) and Information system (IS), are vital from which the data are occurred and interpreted for the information use (Mutch, 2008). CRM has developed in last decade due to the technology used in it. The increase of acceptance in CRM technology in business is due to the concepts of marketing orientation (Kohli, Jaworski and Kumar, 1993). Technology has become important for the company for storing data and using this data to form the strategy of the company. Surveys are one of the methods used to collection information; this form of research helps company to develop marketing software which is used in advertising products to the customers. The use of web technology and use of software as a service provider records all the transactions of the sales in the customer data. This data is used so that the can find out about the usage of product from the customer. Th e company can use the usage data to make any strategic changes to its product. Ultimately, the company will produce the product to its customer needs which will therefore build its relationship with the customer. Davenport (1997, p.9) explains that information is the data which is a kind of purpose and relevance that helps the company to analysis the data in a meaningful way. Data which is collected is the information which is obtained from the customer about their view of product and their expectation from the company. Managing this data is important for the company because this helps the company to get into touch with the customer and to maintain the relationships. It is vital that marketing data which has been collected is of a qualitative nature. This is important because the collected data will be used to produce the companies marketing strategy. If incorrect data is used by the company for marketing purposes, it may have difficulties of understanding the customers requirements and therefore they will struggle in building relationships with its customers. This information which is found now can easily be stored in computers as a data and it can be used infinite amount of times by the company (Buttle, 2004). Information which is collected is structured into computer database in such a way that it can be broken down easily. In CRM the information which is collected is used for decision-making regarding the manufacturing of new product and launching it in to the market. The information which is collected in CRM can also impact customer service, finance, sales and Human Resources management. Knox (2007) affirmed that Hierarchical Nature of Information, which explain that various data merge to form information which in written forms in to knowledge for the company and this information is included to get the valuable meaning. Information is the data which has been produced by the company for making decisions regarding the products and how to market their products. Information plays an important role in the development of the marketing strategy. Managing information in large organisations is important because they regularly collect vast amount of information from the transactions of sales which can for a variety of purpose in the business (Sharp, 2003). CRM is the base for the technology used in collection of data which helps company to capture analysis and apply it in the business. The large amount of information which is collected by the company helps them to understand the requirement of the customer and then apply it to the decision- making in the business. Knowledge in term means the understanding of the particular thing (bob,2005). In regards to technology Goldenberg (2003,p, 171) states that Knowledge management technology helps companies to capture, organize, manipulate, and share explicit and implicit data. In contrast Awad and Ghaziri (2004, p.33) state that knowledge is an understanding gained through experience or study. It is the experience which builds the knowledge about the marketing for the company but not by knowing the particular thing of the market. It is like a task which has to be completed by the person for getting knowledge. In CRM the understanding of meaningful information is released to the person to result in to the knowledge of the customer relationship. The concept behind the knowledge management is of combination of people, technology and organizational process used in the best way to get the result (Awad and Ghaziri, 2004). CRM helps the company to find the most appropriate way for utilizing the knowledge and getting best result out of it. It is the mixture of all kind of data available for the company as uses secondary resources. The main focus behind CRM in knowledge is to collect large amount of data and then finding out the best suitable data for the particular product for marketing (Awad and Ghaziri, 2004).

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder :: Post-traumatic stress disorder, PTSD

Introduction There has been a proliferation of interest in the development and nature of individual’s thinking patterns and processes following traumatic psychological exposure (Ehlers, Mayou, & Bryant, 1998). In particular, previous research has suggested that specific thinking styles and patterns preceding trauma predict a greater vulnerability and a poorer long-term prognosis of posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) (Dalgleish, 2004). Moreover, the literature has illustrated that adolescents can be predisposed to developing PTSD which develops as a result of either direct or indirect exposure to a trauma. For example, witnessing a trauma directly or learning about a specific traumatic event experienced by others (Finkelhor & Dziuba-Leatherman, 1994). Previous research has highlighted that adolescents that have been exposed to a trauma and PTSD may also be more vulnerable to developing aggressive and antisocial behaviours (Falshaw, Browne & Hollin, 1996), alcohol and drug dependence, hypervigilance and impulsive misconduct (Lynam, Caspi, Moffitt, Wikstrà ¶m, Loeber & Novak, 2000). Erwin, Newman, McMackin, Morrissey and Kaloupek (2000) suggest that a reason for this is that early exposure to trauma can have severe impact on adolescent’s functioning in terms of their emotions, cognition and behaviour, poor self-regulation and information-processing. Adding to this, Tyson & Goodman, (1996) suggest that it is these deficits in functioning coupled with the individual’s inability to regulate emotions that predispose them to engaging in protective aggression and dangerous re-enactment behaviours as a way of dealing with their exposure to trauma. The link between dysfunctional cognitions and PTSD has been widely explored by various researchers, and it has been suggested that a tight relationship exists between PTSD and antisocial behaviour in youths (Danckwerts & Leathem, 2003). However, little is yet known about the psychological mechanisms which underlie the relationship. This literature review will explore the underlying mechanisms which predict a greater vulnerability to the onset, development and maintenance of PTSD associated with young offenders. More specifically, depressive cognitions such as rumination and counterfactual thinking will be explored with reference to their link with PTSD. Defining Rumination and Counterfactual Thinking Individuals affected by PTSD often report symptoms of incessant ruminative thinking associated with a traumatic experience. The DSM-IV (American Psychiatric Association, 1994) does not however distinguish intrusive rumination and intrusive memories associated with the trauma in the development of PTSD. However, more recently various theoretical perspectives propose that the two are functionally distinct and should be regarded as separate entities (Ehlers & Clark, 2000; Joseph, Williams & Yule, 1997; Ehlers & Steil, 1997).

Social Psychology and the Stanford Prison Experiment by Philip Zimbardo

Social psychology is an empirical science that studies how people think about, influence, and relate to one another. This field focuses on how individuals view and affect one another. Social psychology also produces the idea of construals which represent how a person perceives, comprehends or interprets the environment. Construals introduce the idea that people want to make themselves look good to others and they want to be seen as right. It is also said that the social setting in which people interact impacts behavior, which brings up the idea of behaviorism. Behaviorism is the idea that behavior is a function of the person and the environment. The ideas of social psychology mentioned above can be applied to the Stanford Prison Experiment; in which the environment, the participants, and construals brought about behaviors that may not have been how the participants actually would behave in real life. The Stanford Prison Experiment was conducted in 1971 by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. The purpose of the experiment was a landmark study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life. In social psychology, this idea is known as â€Å"mundane realism†. Mundane realism refers to the ability to mirror the real world as much as possible, which is just what this study did. Twenty-four subjects were randomly assigned to play the role of "prisoner" or "guard" and they were made to conform to these roles. Subjects became so entranced in these roles that the guards started to behave as if they really were the guards of a true prison. Zimbardo had told them to think of themselves in this way and it led to the guards mentally abusing the prisoners with their cruel and degrading ro... ...ion people based on the orders of Adolf Hitler and his henchmen. In reference to the two situations, one participant of the study said that â€Å"anybody can be a guard, but not every one becomes sadistic.† This saying can be applied to real life situations, especially that of the New Jersey incident. These occurrences can be analyzed using social psychology because the environment, the situation, and those holding the authority influenced the behavior of others. Due to these influences, prisoners and guards acted on the roles they were given, in the way that society sees them. The description, in itself, is the definition of social psychology. Works Cited Ratnesar, Romesh. July/August 2011. The Menace Within. Stanford Magazine, pp. 1-9. Smothers, Ronald. (1998, February 6). Asylum Seekers Testify on Abuse by Jail Guards. The New York Times, pp. 1A, 9A.

Development of Feminism and Its Impact on Religion

Feminism is a movement concerned with the advocacy of uplifting the roles and status of women. This struggle of campaigning for women's rights has started from the nineteenth century up to the present. It takes in various forms of protests and activities, all of which are geared towards the attainment of equal rights for women from different classes. This movement has gone across different borders including their struggle in the areas of politics, economics, social status, and in the religious aspect.Over the history, the disparity of rights between males and females is noticeable. Women have become victims of discrimination and double standards. However, the growth of the feminist movements is considered successful in the way that women have become more empowered and represented in different arenas. In the area of religion, feminism has become a distinct philosophy and it has gained influence and respect from different groups. In certain religious groups, women are now allowed to ho ld certain positions of power.Women are now ordained as clergy, hence granting them rights that were in the past held solely by men (â€Å"Feminism and Religion). Feminist philosophers of religion also became widely influential in the study of religion, and as such they were able to provide remarkable standpoints on how religion is to be viewed in a perspective that is beneficial to women. Thus, this has served as a useful tool for women in expressing their own beliefs, ideas and relate their experiences to other people in a way that they are properly heard without being negatively criticized (Frankenberry 2005).This development in the feminist movement was able to seek transformation in the society by challenging social insitutions and attempting to change social norms and standards. The emergence of female heroic figures and saints is an example of how feminist movements have developed over time (Hunt 2004). The challenges posted by feminism became strong that feminists around th e world were able to gather support and hasten changes in the society, not only in political and economic aspects, but also in the field of religion which was for long been dominated by men.

Health Information Technology Paper Essay

The facility that of Health Care that I have chosen is Bradford Oaks Nursing Rehabilitation Center, Genesis Healthcare, Clinton Md, 20735. This Nursing home is a Long-term and Short-term nursing home with one level floor holding 180 beds and the facility tries to keep the census up to 170 beds. They are owned by Genesis Healthcare, the population that is served there are 80 percent elderly and the other 10 percent is between the age of 21 and up the younger generation. They offer all types of services at the facility as far as Rehab, Long-term care, Short-term Care, Respite Care, and Hospice Care. There are a very good facility that have accreditation of GENESIS HEALTHCARE RECOGNIZED AS ONE OF THE ACHIEVERS 50 MOST ENGAGED WORKPLACESâ„ ¢ IN THE UNITED STATES, Genesis HealthCare receives Viverae’s 2012 Vanguard Award for developing a healthier workplace culture. The Users of the Health Information at Bradford Oaks Nursing Rehabilitation Center are Physicians who provide the services our patients and residents need in a compassionate and caring environment. Whether it is helping ideas be heard or working to build cooperation amongst business teams. We have Nurses (LPN)-Licensed Practical Nurses One that can provide the services our patients and residents need in a compassionate and caring environment. Whether it is enhancing clinical skills, developing leadership capabilities, or providing strong foundations for career development. We Have (RN) – Registered Nurse Use strong physical assessment skills and mastery of fine nursing principles to manage a range of acute care and rehabilitation patients. They develop and implement individualized care plans for patients while assisting with orientation and supervision of nursing staff. Of Course the administrator who plans, organized, direct, and control the operations of a nursing home or it s equivalent (other long-term personal care facilities with or without nursing services) based on policies established by the owner or governing board. We also have the Support Services which are adult day care, meal programs (like Meals-on-wheels), senior centers, friendly visitor programs, help with shopping and transportation, help with legal question, bill paying, or other financial matters. The way we access Health Information is by Paper Medical Records and Electronic Records. The paper records are accessed through medical records clerk in medical records by giving the name and DOB. The Electronic Records are accessed with a system named PointClickCare, threw Genesis Healthcare. There are plenty of systems they used in the facility but PointClickCare is the system that is used threw out the whole building. In different department and everybody PointClickCare is different. They use a system call E-discharged for referrals that are sent from the hospital to the facility regarding a patients clinical information of a patient who either needs long-term care or short-term care needs. They also use a system called (IRM) – Intake Referral Management where referrals are sent straight to the facility for patients that either need help with long-term healthcare or short-term healthcare. Some of the system that are used under the PointClickCare System are registration, bil ling, coding, computerized physician order entry (CPOE), and nursing system and finance system. I would classify this system based on the description of my Him interviewer is Clinical Support. The functions of this system as explained by my interviewer (R,Shalita,2013) was that the purpose is to have good time management on all of their work and system, getting information at a fast pace and a safe and secure system to protect patient information. The system doesn’t connect/interface with other systems, the system is not user friendly you need a username and password to login and everyone PointClickCare is different depending on their department. This system is very secure, they have vendors to support the maintenance and updated of the systems, especially Genesis Healthcare does have to call their 1-800 number. The strengths of their system is time efficient, communication is clear, its visual to everyone that uses it, give automatic updates, on a patient or if the department updates anything. The PointClickCare HER platform provides an integrated approach to the management of long-term care. By connection clinical, billing, and administration processes across a single, web based platform, information is only entered once, duplicate documentations avoided, staff have more time to spend with residents, errors are reduced, and RUGs are optimized. The templates are completely customizable, they provide consistent, complete, and accurate data. The notes for similar types of exams will appear to be standard and similar, each click adds data elements to the database. Point and click systems create data that can be used to generate clinically useful reports, such as health maintenance reminders and disease management. One of the major advantages of template-based charting is the speed with which i t can make the document available as a medical record. Since notes are created within the EMR, they are available immediately upon completion. There are weakness of the system it takes more time and definitely more concentration for a physician to navigate through a large data set and create progress notes using poingclickcare templates. Templates must by customized per the physician’s requirement, customization can be inflexible and costly. Templates are well-accepted by only tech-savvy doctors, any approach requiring direct data entry by the physician has generally failed because busy providers reject it altogether. The output form these templates is too canned and identical, it loses individuality for each patient. It is difficult for a provider to capture a complete patient encounter on a computer in front of a patient. I learned a lot details about planning, design, implementation, and maintence of the system. The technology section for the long-term care organization reaches beyond software evaluation. Considerations of implementation, training, and support are usually important for holistic care provider solution. PointClickCare’s resources in these critical areas ensure immediate and strategic client success. Implementation services are certified industry experts deliver the best-practices of nearly 5,000 implementations. Dedicated account teams form a strong relationship between PointClickCare and our clients proven methodologies remove risk On-demand and on-site implementation and training offers flexibility in delivery and investment, Support provides the right answers at the right time. Training services are End-user adoption will ultimately drive the success of any technology. PointClickCare’s thorough training programs, delivered onsite, online, or through the application, ar m users with the skills to use PointClickCare on day one: A combination of onsite, web, and on-demand training programs for end-users. Credentialed industry and product expert trainers dedicated to client success during and post-implementation. Ongoing subscriptions for retraining existing or new staff. Support Services are when it comes to technology, your business can’t afford to wait for assistance. PointClickCare’s highly responsive, regionally-dedicated support teams and technical account managers (TAMs) get clients the answers they need, when they need them. PointClickCare’s support organization prevents interruption to operations, freeing clients to focus on their core business: get answers quickly with regular and emergency support types. The right support at the right time with 3 tiers of problem escalation regionally dedicated teams understand and can provide solutions to localized issues. On-Demand resources (Customer Resource Center) provides end-use r support directly within the application. I found that the system PointclickCare is very secure and organized HER, and the PointClickCare is adding more customers per month than any other vendor on the market. That’s because their web-based solutions are uniquely designed to help long-term care providers of all sizes manage the complete lifecycle of resident care. From pre-admission to discharge, our integrated approach to EHR streamlines clinical, MDS, billing, and administrative processes with maintenance-free software that is as robust as it is easy to use. Some of the key strengths where that they provide consistent, complete, and accurate data. The weakness of the system were that It takes more time—and definitely more concentration—for a physician to navigate through a large data set and create progress notes using point-and-click templates. There could be improve as far as the weakness but I believe that as time goes on and the system continues to get updated they will fix the little issue the sys tem has as of right now. Reference (Healthcare Center, Genesis, (2012). Our Services. Retrieved form, http://www.genesishcc.com/our-services/our-services-overview) (R. Shalita, Personal Communication, August 15, 2013) (Wessinger, Mike, (2000-2013). PointClickCare. Retrieved from, http://www.pointclickcare.com/corp_site/company/management.jsp)

How People Perceive Differently

Many people perceive thoughts differently because they all have different view of the world. After reading the text, Communications in a Changing World, I learned how people can interpret things differently. There are steps of perception everyone goes through which includes interpretation, selection, and organization. As I showed a picture to three different people, they all had different words that described the picture and this explains how people perceive thoughts differently. Everyone in life has different views of the world because of their experiences and beliefs.People went through many obstacles in life which alters their belief system. Once their belief system has been constructed, they are in a habitual cycle which makes them hard to be same with others. No people are alike. We are all different people. With this knowledge, I believe that people view things according to their habitual lifestyle. For example, a person who are stereotypical may view people or judge them by ra ce or individual's character. These people will tend to view society as if everyone did not come from the same family but different places and everyone is categorized.However, some people may view things by emotions and actions. People perceive things differently as the author states, â€Å"Just as self-concept, identity, and physical factors act as filters on our perceptions, our personality also affects how we perceive others† (Dobkins, pg. 68). Many people are brought up in different cultures and background. Even though I may have friends that grew up with me in the same culture, we are different because our nationality might be different. We can eat different food and have our own unique styles.Our interests are different. How we look and feel is different. All three people I showed the picture to came up with different words because they all were in different states and brought up differently in life in general as the author states, â€Å"We like things that are recogni zable or similar to us† (Dobkins, pg. 70). First guy I interviewed goes by the name Jimmy. He looked at the picture and described how the person in the picture was behaving. He came up with words such as â€Å"chilling†, â€Å"sitting†, â€Å"relaxing†, â€Å"distracted†, and â€Å"resting†.Jimmy used most of the words that describes the person's action. He was not stereotypical at all. The second person I interviewed goes by the name of John. John however came up with words such as â€Å"black†, â€Å"afro†, â€Å"double-eye lids†, and â€Å"old†. John was being more stereotypical and described the person as if he belongs in a different family group. The third guy I interviewed goes by the name of David. David used words such as, â€Å"bum†, â€Å"poverty†, â€Å"frustration†, â€Å"hilarious†, â€Å"afro†, and â€Å"guilty†.He perceives that because the man in the picture is African American, he may be doing something harmful to the society as he mentioned the word â€Å"guilty†. Also, he used the word â€Å"poverty† which may represent how he views African Americans as people who are poor. The words he also used was the word â€Å"bum† which indicates that David may feel that there are a lot of African Americans on the streets without homes. I do understand where David came from because he lived all of his life in Downtown Los Angeles. Media influences people to perceive differently about certain group of people in the world.As in Los Angeles, there is always a news about someone shooting in Downtown Los Angeles and most of the time the people who commit crimes are either Hispanic or African Americans. Just because the person is African American does not mean he commits crime or he is a bum. The person in the picture clearly determines that he is not a bad person. But just because of his race, David thinks he is someone bad. Ho wever, Jimmy did not use any words that were stereotypical. He only used words that described the person's actions.By this analysis, people perceive differently by the way they operate their views and belief system. People tend to cooperate by approximately determining their belief system and that is how they feel comfortable as the author states, â€Å"we often put ourselves in familiar situations, see the same patterns, and focus on the same senses in ways that are predictable and comfortable† (Dobkins, pg. 73). People may perceive differently by how they feel at the exact moment of time. When shown the picture if the person is at a negative state, they will look for negative words.When the person is in an excited or happy state of mind, they will look for words that are more positive. Although media repetition may alter one's mind about views of different nationalities, a person's state can distract how they analyze things of this world. For example, a person in a good sta te may present happier motives and bring excitement and joyful emotions to the table. However, a person with a negative state of mind may extract bad energy that may bring people around them down. A person's state may alter how they perceive things differently.Jimmy and John may have used more positive words because they may be in a positive state of mind at the moment. However, David may have been in a negative state of mind at the moment he was interviewed. I do believe that people have their own ways of beliefs and view systems but the emotions they feel at the moment definitely do have some type of impact towards their perception as the author states, â€Å"As individuals, we bring the composite of our self-concept and identity, physical characteristics, and personality into every communicative setting† (Dobkins, pg. 68).In conclusion, everyone in this world perceives differently. Everyone has their own core belief systems embedded into their lifestyle. This is due to the ir experiences in their lifetime. Media and other sources may impact one's belief systems. Maybe some people might have been hurt by certain ethnic group of people. Jimmy, John, and David whom I interviewed all had different words that describe the picture. In this regimental paper, I have described how these three people perceived differently because of their different belief system, state of mind, and experiences.

Chapter 2 The Scar

Harry lay flat on his back, breathing hard as though he had been running. He had awoken from a vivid dream with his hands pressed over his face. The old scar on his forehead, which was shaped like a bolt of lightning, was burning beneath his fingers as though someone had just pressed a white-hot wire to his skin. He sat up, one hand still on his scar, the other hand reaching out in the darkness for his glasses, which were on the bedside table. He put them on and his bedroom came into clearer focus, lit by a faint, misty orange light that was filtering through the curtains from the street lamp outside the window. Harry ran his fingers over the scar again. It was still painful. He turned on the lamp beside him, scrambled out of bed, crossed the room, opened his wardrobe, and peered into the mirror on the inside of the door. A skinny boy of fourteen looked back at him, his bright green eyes puzzled under his untidy black hair. He examined the lightning-bolt scar of his reflection more closely. It looked normal, but it was still stinging. Harry tried to recall what he had been dreaming about before he had awoken. It had seemed so real†¦There had been two people he knew and one he didn't†¦He concentrated hard, frowning, trying to remember†¦ The dim picture of a darkened room came to him†¦There had been a snake on a hearth rug†¦a small man called Peter, nicknamed Wormtail†¦and a cold, high voice†¦the voice of Lord Voldemort. Harry felt as though an ice cube had slipped down into his stomach at the very thought†¦ He closed his eyes tightly and tried to remember what Voldemort had looked like, but it was impossible†¦All Harry knew was that at the moment when Voldemort's chair had swung around, and he, Harry, had seen what was sitting in it, he had felt a spasm of horror, which had awoken him†¦or had that been the pain in his scar? And who had the old man been? For there had definitely been an old man; Harry had watched him fall to the ground. It was all becoming confused. Harry put his face into his hands, blocking out his bedroom, trying to hold on to the picture of that dimly lit room, but it was like trying to keep water in his cupped hands; the details were now trickling away as fast as he tried to hold on to them†¦Voldemort and Wormtail had been talking about someone they had killed, though Harry could not remember the name†¦and they had been plotting to kill someone else†¦him! Harry took his face out of his hands, opened his eyes, and stared around his bedroom as though expecting to see something unusual there. As it happened, there was an extraordinary number of unusual things in this room. A large wooden trunk stood open at the foot of his bed, revealing a cauldron, broomstick, black robes, and assorted spellbooks. Rolls of parchment littered that part of his desk that was not taken up by the large, empty cage in which his snowy owl, Hedwig, usually perched. On the floor beside his bed a book lay open; Harry had been reading it before he fell asleep last night. The pictures in this book were all moving. Men in bright orange robes were zooming in and out of sight on broomsticks, throwing a red ball to one another. Harry walked over to the book, picked it up, and watched one of the wizards score a spectacular goal by putting the ball through a fifty-foot-high hoop. Then he snapped the book shut. Even Quidditch – in Harry's opinion, the best sport in the world – couldn't distract him at the moment. He placed Flying with the Cannons on his bedside table, crossed to the window, and drew back the curtains to survey the street below. Privet Drive looked exactly as a respectable suburban street would be expected to look in the early hours of Saturday morning. All the curtains were closed. As far as Harry could see through the darkness, there wasn't a living creature in sight, not even a cat. And yet†¦and yet†¦Harry went restlessly back to the bed and sat down on it, running a finger over his scar again. It wasn't the pain that bothered him; Harry was no stranger to pain and injury. He had lost all the bones from his right arm once and had them painfully regrown in a night. The same arm had been pierced by a venomous foot-long fang not long afterward. Only last year Harry had fallen fifty feet from an airborne broomstick. He was used to bizarre accidents and injuries; they were unavoidable if you attended Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry and had a knack for attracting a lot of trouble. No, the thing that was bothering Harry was the last time his scar had hurt him, it had been because Voldemort had been close by†¦But Voldemort couldn't be here, now†¦The idea of Voldemort lurking in Privet Drive was absurd, impossible†¦ Harry listened closely to the silence around him. Was he half expecting to hear the creak of a stair or the swish of a cloak? And then he jumped slightly as he heard his cousin Dudley give a tremendous grunting snore from the next room. Harry shook himself mentally; he was being stupid. There was no one in the house with him except Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley, and they were plainly still asleep, their dreams untroubled and painless. Asleep was the way Harry liked the Dursleys best; it wasn't as though they were ever any help to him awake. Uncle Vernon, Aunt Petunia, and Dudley were Harry's only living relatives. They were Muggles who hated and despised magic in any form, which meant that Harry was about as welcome in their house as dry rot. They had explained away Harry's long absences at Hogwarts over the last three years by telling everyone that he went to St. Brutus's Secure Center for Incurably Criminal Boys. They knew perfectly well that, as an underage wizard, Harry wasn't allowed to use magic outside Hogwarts, but they were still apt to blame him for anything that went wrong about the house. Harry had never been able to confide in them or tell them anything about his life in the wizarding world. The very idea of going to them when they awoke, and telling them about his scar hurting him, and about his worries about Voldemort, was laughable. And yet it was because of Voldemort that Harry had come to live with the Dursleys in the first place. If it hadn't been for Voldemort, Harry would not have had the lightning scar on his forehead. If it hadn't been for Voldemort, Harry would still have had parents†¦. Harry had been a year old the night that Voldemort – the most powerful Dark wizard for a century, a wizard who had been gaining power steadily for eleven years – arrived at his house and killed his father and mother. Voldemort had then turned his wand on Harry; he had performed the curse that had disposed of many full-grown witches and wizards in his steady rise to power – and, incredibly, it had not worked. Instead of killing the small boy, the curse had rebounded upon Voldemort. Harry had survived with nothing but a lightning-shaped cut on his forehead, and Voldemort had been reduced to something barely alive. His powers gone, his life almost extinguished, Voldemort had fled; the terror in which the secret community of witches and wizards had lived for so long had lifted, Voldemort's followers had disbanded, and Harry Potter had become famous. It had been enough of a shock for Harry to discover, on his eleventh birthday, that he was a wizard; it had been even more disconcerting to find out that everyone in the hidden wizarding world knew his name. Harry had arrived at Hogwarts to find that heads turned and whispers followed him wherever he went. But he was used to it now: At the end of this summer, he would be starting his fourth year at Hogwarts, and Harry was already counting the days until he would be back at the castle again. But there was still a fortnight to go before he went back to school. He looked hopelessly around his room again, and his eye paused on the birthday cards his two best friends had sent him at the end of July. What would they say if Harry wrote to them and told them about his scar hurting? At once, Hermione Granger's voice seemed to fill his head, shrill and panicky. â€Å"Your scar hurt? Harry, that's really serious†¦Write to Professor Dumbledore! nd I'll go and check Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions†¦Maybe there's something in there about curse scars†¦.† Yes, that would be Hermione's advice: Go straight to the headmaster of Hogwarts, and in the meantime, consult a book. Harry stared out of the window at the inky blue-black sky. He doubted very much whether a book could help him now. As far as he knew, he was the only living person to have survived a curse like Voldemort's; it was highly unlikely, therefore, that he would find his symptoms listed in Common Magical Ailments and Afflictions. As for informing the headmaster, Harry had no idea where Dumbledore went during the summer holidays. He amused himself for a moment, picturing Dumbledore, with his long silver beard, full length wizard's robes, and pointed hat, stretched out on a beach somewhere, rubbing suntan lotion onto his long crooked nose. Wherever Dumbledore was, though, Harry was sure that Hedwig would be able to find him; Harry's owl had never yet failed to deliver a letter to anyone, even without an address. But what would he write? Dear Professor Dumbledore, Sorry to bother you, but my scar hurt this morning. Yours sincerely, Harry Potter. Even inside his head the words sounded stupid. And so he tried to imagine his other best friend, Ron Weasley's, reaction, and in a moment, Ron's red hair and long-nosed, freckled face seemed to swim before Harry, wearing a bemused expression. â€Å"Your scar hurt? But†¦but You-Know-Who can't be near you now, can he? I mean†¦you'd know, wouldn't you? He'd be trying to do you in again, wouldn't be? I dunno, Harry, maybe curse scars always twinge a bit†¦I'll ask Dad†¦Ã¢â‚¬  Mr. Weasley was a fully qualified wizard who worked in the Misuse of Muggle Artifacts Office at the Ministry of Magic, but he didn't have any particular expertise in the matter of curses, as far as Harry knew. In any case, Harry didn't like the idea of the whole Weasley family knowing that he, Harry, was getting jumpy about a few moments' pain. Mrs. Weasley would fuss worse than Hermione, and Fred and George, Ron's sixteen year old twin brothers, might think Harry was losing his nerve. The Weasleys were Harry's favorite family in the world; he was hoping that they might invite him to stay any time now (Ron had mentioned something about the Quidditch World Cup), and he somehow didn't want his visit punctuated with anxious inquiries about his scar. Harry kneaded his forehead with his knuckles. What he really wanted (and it felt almost shameful to admit it to himself) was someone like – someone like a parent: an adult wizard whose advice he could ask without feeling stupid, someone who cared about him, who had had experience with Dark Magic†¦. And then the solution came to him. It was so simple, and so obvious, that he couldn't believe it had taken so long – Sirius. Harry leapt up from the bed, hurried across the room, and sat down at his desk; he pulled a piece of parchment toward him, loaded his eagle-feather quill with ink, wrote Dear Sirius, then paused, wondering how best to phrase his problem, still marveling at the fact that he hadn't thought of Sirius straight away. But then, perhaps it wasn't so surprising – after all, he had only found out that Sirius was his godfather two months ago. There was a simple reason for Sirius's complete absence from Harry's life until then – Sirius had been in Azkaban, the terrifying wizard jail guarded by creatures called dementors, sightless, soul-sucking fiends who had come to search for Sirius at Hogwarts when he had escaped. Yet Sirius had been innocent – the murders for which he had been convicted had been committed by Wormtail, Voldemort's supporter, whom nearly everybody now believed dead. Harry, Ron, and Hermione knew otherwise, however; they had come face-to-face with Wormtail only the previous year, though only Professor Dumbledore had believed their story. For one glorious hour, Harry had believed that he was leaving the Dursleys at last, because Sirius had offered him a home once his name had been cleared. But the chance had been snatched away from him – Wormtail had escaped before they could take him to the Ministry of Magic, and Sirius had had to flee for his life. Harry had helped him escape on the back of a hippogriff called Buckbeak, and since then, Sirius had been on the run. The home Harry might have had if Wormtail had not escaped had been haunting him all summer. It had been doubly hard to return to the Dursleys knowing that he had so nearly escaped them forever. Nevertheless, Sirius had been of some help to Harry, even if he couldn't be with him. It was due to Sirius that Harry now had all his school things in his bedroom with him. The Dursleys had never allowed this before; their general wish of keeping Harry as miserable as possible, coupled with their fear of his powers, had led them to lock his school trunk in the cupboard under the stairs every summer prior to this. But their attitude had changed since they had found out that Harry had a dangerous murderer for a godfather – for Harry had conveniently forgotten to tell them that Sirius was innocent. Harry had received two letters from Sirius since he had been back at Privet Drive. Both had been delivered, not by owls (as was usual with wizards), but by large, brightly colored tropical birds. Hedwig had not approved of these flashy intruders; she had been most reluctant to allow them to drink from her water tray before flying off again. Harry, on the other hand, had liked them; they put him in mind of palm trees and white sand, and he hoped that, wherever Sirius was (Sirius never said, in case the letters were intercepted), he was enjoying himself. Somehow, Harry found it hard to imaging dementors surviving for long in bright sunlight, perhaps that was why Sirius had gone South. Sirius's letters, which were now hidden beneath the highly useful loose floorboards under Harry's bed, sounded cheerful, and in both of them he had reminded Harry to call on him if ever Harry needed to. Well, he needed to right now, all right†¦. Harry's lamp seemed to grow dimmer as the cold gray light that precedes sunrise slowly crept into the room. Finally, when the sun had risen, when his bedroom walls had turned gold, and when sounds of movement could be heard from Uncle Vernon and Aunt Petunia's room, Harry cleared his desk of crumpled pieces of parchment and reread his finished letter. Dear Sirius, Thanks for your last letter. That bird was enormous; it could hardly get through my window. Things are the same as usual here. Dudley's diet isn't going too well. My aunt found him smuggling doughnuts into his room yesterday. They told him they'd have to cut his pocket money if he keeps doing it, so he got really angry and chucked his PlayStation out of the window. That's a sort of computer thing you can play games on. Bit stupid really, now he hasn't even got Mega-Mutilation Part Three to take his mind off things. I'm okay, mainly because the Dursleys are terrified you might turn up and turn them all into bats if I ask you to. A weird thing happened this morning, though. My scar hurt again. Last time that happened it was because Voldemort was at Hogwarts. But I don't reckon he can be anywhere near me now, can he? Do you know if curse scars sometimes hurt years afterward? I'll send this with Hedwig when she gets back; she's off hunting at the moment. Say hello to Buckbea k for me. Harry Yes, thought Harry, that looked all right. There was no point putting in the dream; he didn't want it to look as though he was too worried. He folded up the parchment and laid it aside on his desk, ready for when Hedwig returned. Then he got to his feet, stretched, and opened his wardrobe once more. Without glancing at his reflection he started to get dressed before going down to breakfast.