A/N: Howdy y'all! This is just because I feel like embracing my southern heritage, hope you enjoy!

Summary: American pranksters Delia, Carmen, and Scarlet and the rest of the students from their school are transferred to Hogwarts after vengeful death eaters blow up their school. With them, they bring some southern hospitality that is greatly needed, and some powers that could change the outcome of the war against Voldemort.

Disclaimer: Me- the people who look new and unfamiliar. JKR- everything else.

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Dixieland Girls

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Chapter 1- Strange Differences
Delia Robinson, Carmen Woods and Scarlet Launders were crawling in the dirt at the edge of a forest on Scarlet's family's property. They were supposed to be hunting for deer with Scarlet's twin brother and his friends, but as usual, they had other things in mind, like pranking the mean boys shitless. So far, everything was going great, the boys had carefully followed the path that they had marked earlier that morning, and were well on their way to getting what they deserved. At the beginning of the summer, Scarlet's mom had made the girls promise that they would behave, and the girls agreed on one condition, the boys had to be nice. Well, that went down the hole pretty quickly. The morning after the boys arrived, the girls woke up to find themselves in a booby-trapped bedroom. Water balloons enchanted to hover overhead, then pelt down at the first thing that got out of bed that was Delia. Then the floor was covered in honey, the dog's favorite flavor, thank you Carmen. The rest of the room looked fine until Scarlet walked through the door and right into an itching charm. Since that day, the girls had been evily silent, planing the mother of all pranks.

Sixteen-year-old Delia flattened herself against the dirt and peered through the stalks of corn. Her blonde hair hung in a ponytail that trailed down her back and camouflaged with the corn. Her blue eyes glittered crazily in the direction of the indentation that the boys were making in the corn, only a few feet away, they had no idea what was coming. Pointed ears poked through the folds of her hair and she made no move to hide them.

Carmen, also sixteen, rolled next to her, her red hair gleaming in the sun. She had streaked her hair black and orange and cut it the summer before so that it just brushed the tips of her pointed ears. Her green eyes flashed with mischief and she was only too ready to give in to it. She pulled her shotgun up next to her and propped it up so that it was pointing at the boys in front of them, just like Delia's.

'You know, you ought to be careful with that hair of yours, they just might think you are a red winger and shoot you.' Delia said to Carmen telepathically in an all too southern voice.

'Ain't that the point? To blend in?' Carmen said back her voice equally southern.

'Just be careful, that's all.'

'Yeah, yeah, yeah.' Carmen lifted her arm and looked at her watch. 'Get ready, it's almost time. All we gotta do is wait for the signal.' She looked at the boys with flashing eyes, and drew her sneakered feet under her body to perfect her aim. 'This is going to be so much fun. I got dibs on Troy, that boy is going to regret that little pumpkin incident.' She shuddered remembering the Halloween before when Troy Barnes had taken a fairly large pumpkin off their house table and smashed it on her head. It had taken hours to get the sticky stuff out of her short spikes. She grumbled inwardly about it.

'Yeah, and nobody touch Brian, I've got a little score to settle with that kid.' Delia said to the girls. Brian Massey, school hunk and certified jerk had tied her cat's tail to her bedpost with out her noticing and the poor kitty had gone into shock, its black fur streaked white, and her eyes gone blue, a sure sign that she wouldn't ever again hear anything. 'Poor Celia.'

'Quit fantasizing about that stupid cat and get on with what you're supposed to do!' Scarlet interjected into her thoughts.

Delia's head whipped around. 'Where are you?'

'Don't worry 'bout me. Just wait for the signal.'

Delia's super eyes raked the forest's edge and she caught sight of a black head streaked blonde by the sun and the wickedly smirking face of Scarlet Launders, her pointed ears twitching with unshed laughter. Delia laughed inwardly when she heard what the black haired girl was thinking.

'They will regret the day they ever entered my room uninvited.'

Then Delia went back to listening for the signal.

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Scarlet shoved an unruly piece of hair behind her ear, slung the strap of her shotgun over her shoulder, and braced her right foot against the trunk if the nearest tree, being careful to stay hidden from the boys. She silently scaled the tree and perched high in the top most branches, peering down on the offending being that was her brother. She plopped down on a sturdy looking branch and lifted her shotgun, trailing it on Sean's dark head. "Sean Launders, you are gonna get it." She muttered to herself. She looked down at her watch, two minutes left.

Scarlet thought about her brilliant plan to get her brother back. The girls were a part of something extraordinary. They were Earth Walkers, types of elves with really awesome powers, as Scarlet would put it. They could communicate with telepathy, had unimaginable speed and other things too. Delia had what the others called 'super sight' and 'super hearing', Carmen could burn and freeze things on command, and Scarlet specialized in telekinesis (that is moving things with her mind) and mind reading. Today, they had devised a plan where as soon as her watch alarm went off, Scarlet would let out a loud hoot of victory and previously stored bullets of consolidated water, courtesy of Carmen bottling Co., would shoot towards the boys drenching them in very wet water. But to get their attention, Scarlet would shoot two warning shots in the air, then Delia would shoot a bullet of fire right past Troy's ear. Scarlet sniggered at the thought of what her brother's face would look like when he finally figured out that he was being ambushed by elves!

At this thought Scarlet scowled. Sean had always made fun of her pointy ears and her powers too, but not long ago, she realized that it was because he was jealous. But he had absolutely nothing to be jealous of! Being an Earth Walker was no piece of strawberry short cake. Vigorous training, painful honing of powers, and random other things that Reahghan, their trainer, could come up with filled their Saturdays during the school year and during the summer, only stopping when there was a Quidditch match, or when their fathers wanted to take them to football games.

Then the watch went off and Scarlet silenced it quickly.

Many feet below, Delia heard the alarm go off, though no one else did. "Get ready." She whispered quietly to Carmen.

Carmen nodded and waited.

Scarlet hooted loudly and pointed her gun in the air, keeping an eye trailed on the boys.

Sean's head popped up from where he was tying the legs of a deer to a staff. "Owl." He said.

"Owl?" Troy asked bewildered. "Owls don't come out during the day time, only to deliver mail."

Sean shook his head and went back to tying the deer.

Scarlet smirked at her brother's stupidity, then fired her two warning shots into the air, the water bullet was next, and it was huge, like a water balloon, just without the balloon.

The boys jumped up at the shots and stared around, they thought the girls were on the other side of the property, which stretched for many miles.

Delia fired the fire bullet and it wizzed past Troy's left ear, extinguishing before it became harmless. He jumped and screamed like a girl.

"NOW!" Scarlet yelled and fired her water bullet at Sean's head. The force from the gun knocking her off balance and sending her over one side of the branch and towards the ground, but her mind caught up with her halfway down and she stopped the fall and hovered in mid air for a minute. "Hmmm, didn't know I could do that." She went down the rest of the way and smiled to herself. "Cool."

The boys were screaming at the tops of their lungs about being too wet.

"You should be happy about being wet, you get to escape this unbearable heat." Carmen said standing up not far from the boys and dusting off her jeans. "But you have to admit it, that was executed perfectly. Am I right Delia?"

"Absolutely, my dear friend." Delia said standing up and dusting off. "And they deserved it to."

"Yes they did, that ought to show not to come into my room again. You don't know what you could have broken!" Scarlet said coming up between the two girls and staring her brother down.

Sean was also situated between his friends and he stared back. "That was mean."

"No duh! And like what you did last month was so very nice, oh aren't you the angel." Scarlet spat back.

"We thought you were over it! No body holds a grudge for this long!" Troy said from Sean's left.

"We aren't exactly no body Troy, and you know that. Now I suggest that you leave us alone, or we won't be so nice next time. We just might forget to change the bullets." Carmen said nastily.

Sean's gray eyes so much like Scarlet's, yet so different, glowed. "You wouldn't dare, you're too chicken to kill anybody."

"No, not kill exactly, but wound pretty badly, so I suggest you back off and leave your childish pranks at the door, 'cause it's a war in here." Delia said. Her soft southern accent had gone hard and her eyes were icy. "And the weak do not survive. Oh and I'm not the chicken in this bunch lovey."

Sean seemed even angrier as he thought about what she said. Then it clicked. "I AIN'T NO CHICKEN!"

"Well you coulda fooled me!" Scarlet shot back. She sneered at Brian who was still sputtering from the cold water. "Typical Pacifi. Always the weak link on the chain." She spun around her hair flying around her elfish features and she stormed back up to the house, temporarily forgetting that she had only gotten two geese from a few chance shots. She entire mind was full to the brim on how thick a Pacifi could be. She walked up to the plantation style house that had been in her family for years and dropped the dead birds in the summer kitchen, then pushed open the back door and stormed to her room with Delia and Carmen in tow. She ranted for hours until the dinner bell rang and they cleaned up and went to dinner with Scarlet still ranting and raving about the war, but she stopped as soon as she caught sight of her mother and father at opposite sides of the dinner table. The look in her mother's eyes clearly stated that she wanted no talk of war at her dinner table.

"Hello mother." Scarlet said politely. "Hello daddy." She plopped down in her space on her mother's right and the girls sat on her left side, filling that side of the table and facing the boys who filled the other side.

"Hello dumplin'." The older woman said warmly.

Scarlet winced at the use of her old pet name and whined. "Mama, I thought you said you wouldn't call me that anymore?"

"Sorry dear."

"'S all right, where's John?" Scarlet asked indicating the small chair next to her where her three-year-old brother John usually sat.

"Oh, he didn't want to eat, so he just went to sleep." Cecilia turned to her husband. "How was work honey?"

Frank Launders worked as a First Rank Auror for the American Ministry of Magic, and had lately been spending hours at his office trying to create strategies with his colleagues on how to unseat Voldemort from power. He hadn't been home to eat dinner with his family for weeks, and looked haggard and old. But he smiled for his wife's sake, however clueless she may be. "It was fine honey. I think we may have figured out a way to bring the light back together."

It was a war within a war.

The light side had split in half in the states, all over how they should get rid of Voldemort. One side, the Bllators, believed that they should go to war, fighting the death eaters back until they got to Voldemort himself and then destroy the monster. But the other side, the Pacificatios, or the Pacifis, believed that it could be done in a peaceful manor- have a quiet meeting with Voldemort's top people and even with He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named himself. Both differed and held strong to their beliefs, and it forced best friends against each other, love to crash and churn, and families to split apart. Like the rest of their country, Salem School of Magic had split in half, Bllators on one side and Pacificatios on the other, siblings against each other and best friends turning the cold shoulder. Hence the indifference in the Launders' household. Though they never let their feelings show in front of their mother, she had made it clear that she wanted a happy family this summer. But arguments always broke out over the dinner table, especially with the four new kids, and tension was running high. Sean and his boys as Pacificatios and Scarlet and the girls as Bllators left much to be desired for Cecilia Launders.

Brian said, "Sorry Mr. Launders, but I don't think that that will ever happen."

"Why do you think that?" Mr. Launders said this nicely, but the look in his eyes told Brian not to step out of line.

"Because he is a spineless mamma's boy who's afraid of war." Scarlet muttered to her peas.

Brian started to sputter trying to come up with a witty comeback, but only came up with, "I do too have a spine!"

"Snap out of it Massey!" She said to him. "It is a war out here! There is no turning back! We can not just walk up to Voldemort-"

"Don't say his name!" Sean said a little too loudly making geese flutter out of the corn stalks.

"WHY NOT? IT'S A FRIGGIN' NAME! VOLDEMORT! VOLDEMORT! VOLDEMORT!" Cecilia gasped loudly at her only daughter's choice of language at the dinner table, but Scarlet was burning up by now and didn't hear her. "Sean, you can not avoid this forever! You have to take what you get and run with it."

"If life gives you lemons, make lemonade!" Delia said.

"The future is in our hands, what will we do with it? Throw it away to the death eaters? Let the land go to waste? Not if I have anything to do with it!" Carmen said hotly

Sean shook his head and looked angry. "We don't loose as many lives this way!"

"That way takes too long, and the longer we wait, the more people die anyway." Delia said heating up.

"Time, time, time! That's all you Bllators worry about is time! How much time we have to end this thing! Time shouldn't matter!"

Frank and Cecilia watched as each side of the table yelled at the other, debating over what they should to as the next magical generation.

"Time does matter Sean! The longer we take to end this friggin' war, the more muggles die! The more good aurors we loose to the wrath of the death eaters! The more muggle-borns go missing from our school! Are you not worried about the lives of others? Do you only worry about not going to war?" Carmen yelled across the four feet of tablecloth and wood that separated her from the dim children.

"We do care, but we think it could be done in an easier way, for the sake of the wizarding world."

"EASIER! That's all you care about! Which way's easiest!" Scarlet positively bellowed jumping out of her seat. "You know what Sean?" She stared the boy down and he cowered under her cold gaze. "Not everything in life is easy! There are some things that you have to work for! Some things take sacrifice! But the blood and the sweat are well worth it! They're well worth it." She plopped back in her chair exhausted from the speech and the table fell silent.

"Why's everybody yellin'? I cain't sleep Lettie." Said a small voice from the stairs leading into the dining room.

Everyone turned to look at the new comer and saw that John had woken up from his deep slumber. The three-year-old tottered to Scarlet and held his hands up. She picked him up and stood up from the table. "I'm takin' him back to bed, then I'm goin' to bed myself, I just can't take this anymore." She sent a disgusted look towards Sean and exited the room. Delia and Carmen soon followed.

"Why was ever body yellin Lettie?" John asked softly ad Scarlet laid him gently in his bed again.

"We just disagreed on something sweetie, nothin' for you to worry your curly little head about." Scarlet ruffled the mass of dark curls that sat on his head and kissed his forehead. "Now go back to sleep."

"I'm not tired." He said, but yawning while you do this does not convince anyone.

"Oh I think you are little man."

"Nuh uh." He said shaking his head sleepily.

"Okay, if I play you a song will you go back to sleep?" John nodded vigorously. "All right, lemme go get my guitar, I'll be right back." Scarlet went to her room and pulled out her guitar, and told the girls she'd be back after she sang her stubborn brother to sleep.

Scarlet went back to john's room to see him still sitting up in bed, waiting for her.

"So what'll be little man?"

"Godspeed." He replied.

"All rightie then." Scarlet strummed out a couple of notes on the strings, then continued with a soft fluent one. She watched as John settled back into his pillows and began to sing.

"Dragon tales and 'the water is wide' Pirates sail and lost boys fly Fish bite moonbeams every night And I love you

Godspeed little man Sweet dreams little man Oh my love will fly to you each night on angel's wings Godspeed Sweet dreams

The rocket racer's all tucker out Superman's in pajamas on the couch Goodnight moon, we'll find the mouse And I love you

Godspeed little man Sweet dreams little man Oh my love will fly to you each night on angel's wings Godspeed Sweet dreams

God bless mommy and match box cars God bless dad and thanks for the stars God hears 'amen', wherever we are And I love you

Godspeed little man Sweet dreams little man Oh my love will fly to you each night on angel's wings Godspeed Godspeed Godspeed Sweet dreams"

Scarlet looked down at John and discovered he was all ready asleep. "Sweet dreams." Scarlet kissed his forehead and pulled the covers up over his tiny body. Then she left to talk the night away with her friends, debating the usual, if the Pacifis were really as thick as they seemed.
A/N: I know, really no magic in this chappie, but it all comes in the next one, I just had to write this to get some things out and across. I hope you liked it. The song "Godspeed" does not belong to me, rather to the Dixie Chicks, but it is a really great song on their new album "Home". Now just leave me a little review by clicking the little button on the left side of your screen that says, "GO". At the beginning of the chappie, a 'red winger' is a robin, which for you no-nature types, is a bird.