Professor Dumbledore took Harry, Ron, and Hermione away. Layla went back to the common room as quickly as she could, though nobody noticed, because she was always the first to go to the common room. Today, however, everyone went there right after the feast. Malfoy and almost everyone appeared to be overjoyed at what had happened to the caretaker, Mr.Filch's cat.

Layla did not really like Mr.Filch, however, as she was such a cat lover, she felt very sorry for him. She knew that she would feel very upset if something like that ever happened to one of her cats. She probably would not even go out of her dormitory for maybe days. She hated the way that Malfoy gloated about what was written on the wall.

"How could you?"she asked. "How could you be so heartless, Draco? What has Mrs.Norris ever done to you? She's only an innocent kitty!"

"I don't care about that stupid cat. However, pretty soon there won't be any Mudbloods around the school. Only decent wizards."

"The sign said 'enemies of the heir', what if the heir is Muggle-born? Then you will be one of the first ones to go, Malfoy."

"Right. A Mudblood? Be the Heir of Slytherin?"

"It's a possibility. It could be just about anybody. It could be a Squib for all we know, or maybe even a Muggle. Salazar Slytherin did not like Muggle-borns, but who knows maybe his daughter, son, granddaughter, grandson, so forth."

"I don't' know how the stupid Sorting Hat chose you to be in Slytherin. You are not a proper Slytherin. You're nothing more than a Muggle-lover, like those stupid Weasleys."

"I am a Slytherin. The hat said I was. I'll show you one day, Draco Malfoy, one day, oh, one day I will show you, if it's the last thing I ever do! We'll see who gets the last laugh! You will be begging me to forgive you! One of these days! One of these days!"she screamed at him and ran towards her dormitory.

She walked towards her bed, where all her cats were.

"They will be sorry. They're only a bunch of…well, who gets better grades? Me or them? Ha! It's me of course! I will be better than them, than all of them! And they'll be sorry they ever made fun of me. I am a true Slytherin, Sissita, Alito, Pietrito, Tzacita, I will do anything to show them. They're only angry that it wasn't them. Or maybe it was. I don't care, but if it is them, then I'll get them. It may be risky, but I'll do it. I want to see them in trouble. They will get in trouble! That's it!"

The next morning Layla asked Hermione what had happened with Professor Dumbledore.

"Well, luckily, we got off. Not that we did anything wrong, of course. You see, she's not dead. She's been Petrified."

"Petrified?"asked Layla looking confused.

"You know, turned to stone, all stiff."

"Oh, I see. Petrified. Petra is Latin for rock, or stone, or something. That's what Pietrito's name means. You know, Pietro, Petra, Pedro, Piotr, so forth. I see, I should have known."

Hermione looked at her.

"Well, etymology is also something I like to do a lot. Especially name etymology. I like to find out what people's names mean. It's kind of fun, you know, to know what your name means, and well, what other names. I love names. Once you start with etymology, you'll never look at words the same way again. And it sort of helps with different languages, sometimes. That's why I started it in the first place. I've always wanted to learn different languages. Unfortunately, I'm only bilingual. I've always wanted to learn more languages. Especially Slavic languages, like Polish, Russian, and all that. That' s a part of the world I've always wanted to see."

"Oh, well, I always knew you liked words. You do, after all, have such a large vocabulary."

"Yes, especially incantations, and all that. I guess you could say that's why I do so well in Charms."

"I think you do pretty well in all of your classes."

"No, I'm only average, that is if I'm average at all. I'm probably below average. My brother Manuel, though, is really smart."

"Why are you always so hard on yourself?"

"Oh, I'm not hard on myself. I'm just realistic. It's not good just to dream. The higher you soar, the more painful it is when you fall. I just want to have both of my feet planted firmly on the ground. That way, well, it won't hurt so much when I fall. So then what did Petrify Mrs.Norris?"

"Professor Dumbledore isn't sure."

"What were you doing there in the first place?"

Hermione hesitated. She knew she shouldn't tell anyone, but she decided she could trust Layla.

"Well, we were on our way back from the Deathday party."

"Deathday? Don't you mean birthday? And whose? I didn't know someone was celebrating their birthday on Halloween. No one said anything to me about it. Then again, I shouldn't be surprised."

"No, a Deathday. Nearly Headless Nick was celebrating his five hundredth Deathday. You know, the day he died."

"Oh, I see. We celebrate birthdays, the days we were born, because we're alive, the ghosts celebrate Deathdays, the days they died, because they're dead."

"Yes."

"Well, what was it like? I do wish I could have gone. I wish I could've been invited. But I suppose he didn't want a Slytherin spying on his party."

"Be grateful you weren't invited."Hermione told her. "It wasn't exactly fun."

"Why?"

"First of all, it was freezing cold, second the food, if you can call it food anymore, was rotten."

"Oh, but why were you in the upstairs corridor?"

"Well, we left the party early, because, well, we just couldn't take anymore. And on our way up, well, Harry heard a voice."

"A voice? What do you mean he heard a voice?"

"I mean precisely that. He heard a voice. He said it was between the walls, and then he said that it was going to kill someone, and we ran upstairs, and found the writing on the wall, and Mrs.Norris hanging on the torch. And then the feast was over, and everyone saw us."

"Oh. What did Dumbledore say?"

"We didn't say anything to him. You understand."

"Yes, but what explanation did you give him?"

"Just that we were tired and wanted to go to bed. Professor Snape didn't believe us, though."

"You should have said that the you thought the feast was over, or ending, or that you thought that there wouldn't be much left."

"That never occurred to us. We weren't exactly thinking."

"I see. I'm glad you're not in trouble, though."

"Me, too. But do you have any idea what that voice is?"

"No. It sounds pretty confusing."

"How has your Quidditch team been doing?"

"I don't know. I guess they've been training pretty hard. Harry has been, anyway, so I suppose the whole team has."

"Yes. I wonder why they would have wanted to attack Mrs.Norris, though. I guess I'll see you at the match."

"Yes."

Layla thought long and hard about the voice that Harry heard on his way to the Great Hall. She wondered whether he was hallucinating. She did not talk to her brothers about it, and did not mention anything in the common room. Everyone was celebrating. They were sure that they were going to beat Gryffindor at the match.

You'd've thought that they'd already won, she thought.

On Saturday, she sat with Ron and Hermione to watch the match. Everything seemed that Slytherin was winning, and Layla could not help but clap every time they scored a goal. It was, after all, her House, and she did want them to win, in a way. She was still a little upset about the Gryffindors having won the House last term, even though she had to admit that they had won fairly. She had been so happy, when she saw that Slytherin had won. About halfway into the match, she saw that one of the Bludger was chasing Harry.

"What is wrong with that Bludger?"she asked.

"It seems to want to murder Harry."

"The Bludger?"

Harry swirled around and around, the Bludger still chasing him, changing direction every time he did. Suddenly, when he stopped, the Bludger hit his right side.

"Oh!"said Layla.

That has got to hurt, she thought to herself. In the mud, she saw that he had caught the Snitch, and that Gryffindor had won.