Song from the Heart

Prologue and Introduction

Maybeth Jones was an ordinary-looking child. Her odd angular little face was sunburned slightly and freckled. Her dark eyes sparked happily, looking a tad too large in her small face. Her stringy wispy black hair was tied back in two braids that were both falling apart.

She was sprawled on her stomach on her back lawn, surrounded by Barbies. In her left hand she held a particular Barbie wearing a creamy puffed up wedding dress. In her right hand, she held Ken in swimming trunks. Humming 'Here Comes the Bride', she made her dolls kiss.

"And now," she announced, looking furtively around. "They dance!"

Making sure no one was watching her, she began to sing cheerfully. Her song made little logical sense, but her sweet voice made it sound just fine.

'Dance dance dance!

'Like ants in your pants!
'Yay yay yay!

'Dance everything away!

'Yee hee hee

'We wanna dance like we are some bee!

'Doo doo doo doo-doo doo doo!'

She sang this little ditty over and over again until something remarkable happened.

Bride Barbie lifted her plastic head and offered her hand to Ken. He awkwardly took it and they began to waltz around to the beat of Maybeth's song.

She watched them happily, still singing. Occasionally she would speed up or slow down her song and the dolls would shift their dancing accordingly.

She was on her fourth rendition of her song when a weird sort of whistling came from behind her. She stopped singing, letting Barbie and Ken stiffen and crumple to the ground. Curiously she crawled over to the fence separating her lawn from her neighbor's. Her mouth dropped open.

A thin teenager with a messy tangle of black hair was scrambling away from something. A lightning-shaped scar was glowing faintly on his forehead. Beads of sweat dripped down off his glasses. Maybeth wondered where on earth he was from. He looked rather like a wizard from her picture books, what with his robe and wand and all.

"Ron, Hermione!" he shouted, seemingly to nowhere. "Go on, I can't hold 'em off any longer!"

"We're not leaving you, Harry!"

Maybeth watched as a bothered-looking girl with very bushy hair jumped over a garden-ornament and went to stand by the boy. She was wearing black robes as well and was also carrying a wand.

"Hermione-"

"Don't be stupid, Harry. Where's Ron?"

"I'm here!" A second boy emerged from apparently nowhere, winding a silvery cloak around his arm. He was tall, with red hair and freckles. "Where'd they go?"

"I dunno," said the one called Harry peevishly. "They- oh dear!"

Maybeth giggled. The expression 'oh dear' did not seem to fit his personality. Her amused mood vanished as ten or eleven huge hooded somethings glided out from across the street. The redhead said a very bad word.

Maybeth shivered. The somethings emitted waves of cold and fear. She found she couldn't think of anything happy; bad scenes were replaying inside her head. The nightmares she had of people locking her up, bullies from school stealing her toys, her parents yelling at her...

She began to do what she always did whenever she felt cold and sad. She began to sing. She didn't make up the song this time; she sang a favorite nursery rhyme she'd always liked.

'Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 


'How I wonder what you are.

'Up above the world so high, 


'Like a diamond in the sky. 


'Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 


'How I wonder what you are!'

'When the blazing sun is gone,

'When he nothing shines upon, 


'Then you show your little light,

'Twinkle, twinkle, all the night. 


'Twinkle, twinkle, little star,

'How I wonder what you are!'

'Then the traveler in the dark

'Thanks you for your tiny spark;

'He could not see which way to go,

'If you did not twinkle so. 


'Twinkle, twinkle, little star, 


'How I wonder what you are!'

As she sang, the somethings hesitated, then glided away. She finished the last line with relief as the pain and fear and cold left her. The teenagers looked astonished.

"Who- what?" stammered the redhead.

Maybeth smiled happily and clambered over the fence and ran up to him. "Me!" she said energetically. "I didn't like them so I sang at them and they went away! Good, huh? Who're you?"

He blinked down at her, an astonished look in his eyes. "Er- I'm Ron. Who're you?"

"I'm Maybeth," she told him. "What were those things?"

"Dementors," the girl said, rather bemusedly. "They suck the happiness out of people."

"Ugh," Maybeth shuddered. "I'm glad I made 'em go away."

"How?" asked Harry, looking down at her. "I thought only spells-"

"Spells?" she demanded. "Spells? Like magic? Can you do magic? Cool! Can I see? Please?"

"Erm," he said, gazing helplessly at the girl.

"Yes," she said, smiling. "We're wizards. Or, rather, they are. I'm a witch."

"Cool!" Maybeth said enthusiastically. "Can I be a witch too?"

"I think you already are," Ron told her. "You sent the Dementors away."

"Yeah, but I just sang," she said dismissively. "I wanna do real magic. Like spells! And wand-stuff."

"When you get older," the girl said bossily. "Now, I think we need to talk to your parents."

"Oh. Are they gonna be mad at me?" Maybeth asked worriedly.

"I don't think so," Ron told her. "C'mon, let's see."

Maybeth led them back to her house and let herself in through the back door. They trooped inside, looking nervous.

"Mamma?" she yelled. "I've got visitors!"

Her mother, a prim blond woman came out. She'd apparently been washing dishes, as she had soap-suds on her hands.

"Maybeth? Who are these people?" she asked disapprovingly.

"Wizards!" Maybeth said happily. "Real ones!"

Before her mother could answer, the girl spoke up. "Hello, I'm Hermione Granger. And I'm afraid what your daughter is saying is true. We can do magic. Strictly speaking, though, we aren't supposed to tell you this because, well, you're not magic. But your daughter- Maybeth- has an extraordinary talent. Have you ever heard her sing?"

Mrs. Jones shrugged noncommittally. "Yes."

"Well, then," Hermione persisted. "You know she can do magic when she sings?"

"Er," said Mrs. Jones, looking suspicious. "I wouldn't say that."

"Show her, Maybeth," Hermione ordered.

Maybeth frowned. She liked to keep her secrets safe from her mother, knowing that she'd never be able to understand her singing. But if these people were real wizards and witches...maybe they knew best, after all.

She decided on her 'Lifting Song'.

'Fly high, to the sky

'Higher, higher, much more pie-er

'And when you fly, please don't cry

''Cause I can never flyer higher'

She focused on an umbrella laying prone across the floor. As she sang, the umbrella lifted into the air, spinning around as Maybeth turned it around in her mind. Her mother watched, awed.

"Wingardium leviosa," muttered Harry, waving his wand, and another umbrella lifted up next to Maybeth's.

"See?" said Ron smugly.

Mrs. Jones swallowed, sitting down on a trunk. "Yes- I see. I believe. But what do you want from my Maybeth?"

"Whatever Maybeth wants," Hermione said gently. "Personally, I think she'd be a great help to our cause, young as she is."

"Cause?" Mrs. Jones inquired.

"There's a...bad wizard out there," Hermione informed her carefully. "He likes to kill non-magical people. We're fighting him. Maybeth would be a great help. She'd be underestimated and no one would think to stop her. We wouldn't place her in any great danger, as she's just a child still."

"I'm eight!" Maybeth said indignantly. "And I wanna fight bad wizards. Like in story-books!"

Hermione nodded, smiling. "With your permission, er-"

"Mrs. Jones," she said distractedly. "Oh, dear. Frank!"

Maybeth's father came out. "Yes, Rita?" He frowned at the three teenagers.

Mrs. Jones explained quickly what had happened. Mr. Jones did not look happy about any of it.

"Where would we say she's gone?" he demanded.

"To visit a relative for a while," Hermione answered. "She'd be safe. We wouldn't have to take her into the real fighting. She could also just help behind scenes, setting up spells and things."

Maybeth's parents talked it over for a very long boring hour, with Hermione's help. They eventually consented to let Maybeth go, as long as she came back to visit whenever she wanted to.

Her mother packed a trunk for her, full of her favorite clothes and toys and books. Maybeth hugged her mother excitedly, too eager to go on an adventure to even really care that she was leaving her home.

"I'll visit, Mamma, don't worry," she said impatiently. "I get to do magic!"

And with that, she went off on her Great Adventure.