Disclaimer: I don't own Harry Potter.  Warner Brothers bought me out.

Harry, Ron and Hermione headed off for Care of Magic Creatures.  As soon as the wisp cages came into view, the three sniggered – Draco was already trying to talk with the green and silver wisp.  When the trio got down laughing, Hermione and Ron looked at Harry.

"Well, this is your idea, mate," Ron prodded.

Harry sighed, and walked over to the Slytherin.  "Er, Malfoy, you might want to pick a different wisp."

Draco stared at him, trying to figure out what Harry was on about.  "And why is that, Potter?"

Figuring he might as well get to the point, Harry said, "Oh, nothing.  I was wondering if you knew what color flobberworm wisps are."

Draco looked back and forth between Harry and the wisp in his arms.  Eventually, he lowered the ball of light to the ground – obviously he realized why his wisp didn't do anything last class –  and looked ponderously at Harry.  "Why did you tell me that, Potter?"

Harry didn't know what to say, and just shrugged his shoulders.  "What animal was your wisp, Potter, that you could talk to… it…"  Harry saw that Malfoy figured out what had happened in the previous class.  "HAGRID" Malfoy yelled loudly.

"Yes?" Hagrid replied, walking up to the two of them.

"Harry cheated," Malfoy complained, "He picked out a snake wisp.  He could speak parseltongue with it."

"And?" Hagrid asked, smiling.

Draco obviously didn't know what to say.  Harry saved him by saying, "I'm sorry, Hagrid, I should have told you."

"I knew," Hagrid beamed, "And I want to ask you something.  Could you do a little project for me?  I'd like you to talk with your wisp and find out some stuff about them.  Not many people can talk with animals, so not much is known about wisps.  Then put down everything you learn on parchment."

Harry nodded his head, but was reminded that he still had several hundred rolls of parchment hidden in the dormitory that he still had to turn in.

Despite the fact they enjoyed Hagrid's class, Harry, Hermione, and Ron all eagerly made their way out to charms after Care of Magic Creatures, although Hermione and Harry had a slightly different reason for their excitement: they were anxious to see whether Ron would be able to make a non-bear golem.  Harry idly wondered what form his own golem would take.  He somehow knew it wouldn't be an animal, and he doubted it would be shaped like a person, either.

Harry noticed that not only had the mud pile been refilled, but another new pile was next to it which was made of small pebbles.  Apparently they would be working on rock golems as well.

"Let's start with some review.  Please make your general golem form out of mud," Flitwick instructed.

Harry looked over at Ron, who said something under his breath.  Afterwards, he loudly intoned, "Automatae," and a figure emerged from the pile.  Harry grinned in triumph when he saw that it was a sleek tiger instead of the bear from last class.

"Weasley!" shouted Flitwick, "What did you do?  I told you to do the general form again!"

Harry cast Automatae distractedly at the pile, beginning to worry that he might have gotten Ron into trouble.

"It is my general form!" complained Ron, "I just said I wanted a tiger.  Watch.  Unicorn.  Automatae."  Sure enough, a mud unicorn burst from the heap.

Harry didn't know whether Flitwick was angry or confused.  The charms teacher looked more distraught than Harry had ever seen him, and he finally asked, "Who told you how to select different animals?"

Ron looked a bit nervous and slowly said, "Harry."

Flitwick quickly turned to face him, but dropped his wand in amazement.  Harry followed the professor's eyes to his golem which had taken rest beside him.  Oddly, it was shaped like a perfect sphere.

Flitwick started breathing irregularly and shouted in a panicked voice, "Potter, tell the golem 'Disintegrate' and go see Dumbledore.  Now!"

Harry followed the orders without hesitation, never having heard Flitwick so nervous before.  He walked through the castle to the headmaster's office, wondering why the professor had acted so afraid of Ron and his golems.  "Lemon drop.  Cockroach Cluster…" Harry said to the stone gargoyle guarding the office, "Sherbert Sweet, Fizzing Whisbee, er... Pepper Imps."

At the last candy, the gargoyle sprung to life and admitted him.  "Problem, Harry?" Dumbledore asked kindly.

"I think I'm in trouble from Flitwick," Harry admitted, "He told me to see you."

"I see," Dumbledore said with a smile, "and what did you do?"

Harry explained, "Well, I figured out how golems were basically created by our beliefs.  So I decided to test it out and suggest to Ron that he could specify what animal he wanted by simply saying the name before he cast the spell.  He believed me, and was able to make a tiger and a unicorn."

Dumbledore's eyes twinkled and he said, "Ah, you did do something wrong, although you can hardly be faulted.  I must ask you to not plant any more suggestions about golems, though.  Filius has enough to worry about."

As Harry was about to leave, Dumbledore spoke up, "I am curious on whether you yourself managed the same feat.  Was your golem still a dog?"

How did he know my original golem was a dog?  Harry thought, and answered, "No."

Dumbledore smiled wider and said, "Indeed.  Which animal did you make?"

Harry answered, "It wasn't an animal.  For some reason Flitwick was worried about that, though."

Dumbledore's smile fled and he humorously asked, "What form did it take?"

Harry began to worry again and slowly said, "It was a sphere."

Dumbledore stood abruptly, surprising Harry a bit, and peered closely at him.  Finally, he went to the fireplace, tossed in a handful of powder, and called, "Minerva McGonagall."

The transfiguration professor's head popped out of the flames a minute later.  "What is it, Albus?  I've got class now."

Dumbledore quietly said, "I know.  But I've got a 15 year old orb wizard in my office and I want to talk with you."  McGonagall's eyes widened and she quickly withdrew from the flames.  Harry was growing more and more alarmed at what was happening, and it didn't help that McGonagall arrived in the headmaster's office in less than five minutes – it was ordinarily at seven or eight minute walk, and she had to dismiss the transfiguration class as well!

McGonagall walked over and studied him for a moment, before turning to Dumbledore and saying, "I'll want to see him an hour each night starting tonight.  And I don't want him in Charms for the next several weeks.  I'm sure Filius doesn't, either."

"Of course," agreed Dumbledore, "and you may handle the matter at your discretion.  We will need a cover story."

McGonagall turned abruptly to face Harry and strictly said, "You will not tell anyone about your new ability.  That also includes Weasley and Granger.  If anyone asks why your golem came out a sphere, you will tell them it is because you are inept.  The dog was just a fluke, and the sphere is just what happens when a person has no golem making ability."

Harry was on the verge of shock.  McGonagall was starting to sound like a character on the bad spy movies Dudley loved to watch.  "Excuse me," Harry ventured, "But I think Hermione will see through that.  She also knows about how golems are made.  She read up on them before class."

For some reason, the last sentence made McGonagall smile.  "Thank goodness for small favors," McGonagall whispered before saying to Harry, "Then I will talk to Hermione myself.  I will see you at 8:00 tonight."

McGonagall left, and Harry turned expectantly to the headmaster and asked, "I'm an orb wizard?"

Dumbledore sighed and said, "Perhaps we should start at the beginning.  The golem spell was discovered a long time ago, far earlier than Hogwarts was constructed.  It was a great boon – a servant to do your bidding.  Of course, it was made in our own image.  However, it wasn't long before the form grew and shrunk.  Some people liked the idea of short diminuative workers; others favored large impressive servants.  However, one wizard noticed that everyone always got what they expected.  Upon realizing this, he didn't know what to expect for his golem and ended up with a sphere.

Harry smiled at the similarities, and Dumbledore continued, "However, his sphere golem began breaking the old theory.  It could alter its shape.  It could let objects pass through it.  It became impervious to all the methods of combating golems at the time."

Dumbledore took a moment, and then said, "Needless to say, the Order of Magi – the equivalent of the Ministry of Magic – took steps to make sure this power couldn't be used for evil.  They created massive amounts of literature on how to create golems, all of which was skewed to lead the reader to believe they would always get a human-shaped form.  The only problem came from the American Indians, who almost invariably imagined an animal if they weren't primed for the human shape.  So the ministry changed its literature, and now everyone expects either an animal or a human form.  And every class in every school is purposely taught in a way which minimizes the chance of a person learning to do what you did."

Harry took all this in silence.  Finally, he burst out, asking, "Why do you try to prevent orb wizards?  And why don't ordinary wizards become orb wizards when they learn what's going on?  And why me?  Why am I an orb wizard?"

Dumbledore smiled and held up a hand.  "I'm sorry, Harry.  But I'm afraid you're going to have to talk with McGonagall about this subject."

Harry's brow wrinkled.  "Why am I training with McGonagall?"

Dumbledore smiled, "Because she's the only other orb wizard in the castle."

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A/N: I apologize for the late submission.  My computer problem is much worse than I thought.  The computer repair team couldn't fix the problem, so it looks like I'm down to two choices – let them have it for a week or so to fiddle with it, or completely reformat the drive and start over.  Please bear with me on this – the next few submissions might be somewhat sporadic because of this.  Thanks!

Ariel: Thanks!

Katani: Thanks!

Bountyhunter: Thanks!

Beefywpac: Ouch!  You found a gaping plot hole!  NOOOO!!!  Ok, I'm going to have to rethink this.  I'm probably going to have to have them floo out of the castle to do this lesson.

Olivia: To tell the truth, I don't know what I'm going to do with Malfoy yet.  I'm not going to have him 'turn to the light side'.  But last trilogy I made him as evil as it gets and was almost lynched.  I'll probably put off a decision until at least the next story.  The wisp is going to be around for a bit.  And don't worry, the dance is going to be coming up – you'll get to see Ron is all his jealous glory…

Kaelli: Ok!  Calm down… :)

Lakergurl13: Well, I'd say snakes are probably magical.  Otherwise, a parseltongue wouldn't be that big of deal  (NO!  It's the man who can talk to cows! Run away!)  Oh, and Hector wasn't Voldemort's pet.  He was one of those animals Voldemort possessed in the Albanian forest (like a "dark shadow").  He just happened to be the last (hence his wife is still with Voldemort)

Sherman: Thanks!

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