Disclaimer- While the plot-line of The Great Elf War comes from my own demented mind, the cast of it not so much. If you seen one of them some place else, it's a good indication that they belong to someone else.

A/N- Nope, not dead. Just busy. Got most of it finished about a week ago only to discover that my muse had decided to take a vacation without informing me. She got back two days ago, bringing back with her a couple stray plot-bunnies. I, unfortunately, have to deal with these bunnies first before they interfere too much with what I have planned. I call these strays Tales From the Elf War and I do expect many more Tales bunnies before I finish with TGEW. Tales is not a sequel or rewrite of tGEW, nor has tGEW been abandoned. What is posted here are the side-stories and drabbles associated to that story, and not all of the Tales scenarios are critical to the main plot- a good portion of them are in fact "what if" stories.

If all goes well (and all the newcomer bunnies are properly handled), TGEW should have a new chapter posted within the week. Tales, on the other hand, will be undated whenever a stray bunny appears, so the time between posting may vary considerably.

(This particular one is part of a 24 hour drabble challenge issued -and later betaed- by SereneTragedy. As such, I decided to see how many prompts I can include in this and still keep it under 1000 words. I managed to get all 4 prompts in with about 40 words to spare- hehe)

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- (Say What?) -

Draco Malfoy didn't understand why he had followed the Golden Trio to the waiting room. He was only there because of he had to stay with Potter at his godfather's insistence. It was not safe for any of them to be alone because of the chaos happening in the Wizarding World, so he was trapped with Muggle-lovers in the Faerie kingdoms with only a single hellhound puppy posing as an animagus for protection. A puppy that in the Wizarding World, was better known as Harry Potter or the Boy-Who-Lived and bounded to their Potions Professor. Potter, at least, had grown tolerable over the weeks that he knew him, but the other two members of the trio still made him grit his teeth.

The cause of his irritation this time were the words that had just come from Granger's mouth.

"You want me to play a Muggle word game?" he repeated in disbelief.

"Yes, unless you can think of something better!" she shot back. "They didn't exactly leave us anything to do and Sirius said that they should be back from the meeting within the hour."

As Draco grumbled at the reminder, Weasley asked, "So what exactly are we suppose to do with this game?"

Granger smiled brightly and said, "Well, we all sit in a circle and someone says a word, any word, and the person to their left has to say the first word that comes to their mind. The person on their left then has to work with that word. So, if I say 'Cotton candy', the next person could say 'fair' and after that someone could say 'day'. We keep going around in the circle until either we can not think of any more words or until Snape and the others get back.

"So, who wants to start?"

"It's your idea, Hermione, so you go first," Potter told her.

"Alright," Granger nodded, and then said the most outrageous thing she could think of, "Squid!"

"Ink," Weasley said cautiously, then grinned smugly after seeing his friends' approvingly looks.

Draco sighed when the group started at him waiting for an answer, "What? Oh, fine. Quill."

"Feather," Potter said immediately.

"Owl," Granger decided.

"Letters," Weasley said, obviously feeling a bit more confident than he should.

"Hogwarts," Potter was next.

Then Granger. "Classes."

"Potions," Weasley grimaced as he said his word.

"By the way, Weasel, did you remember yours?" Draco interrupted, ignoring the glares from the trio, before saying his word. "Snape."

"Asgre," Potter immediately answered, and it did not take a genius to know that the mutt was thinking about his mate.

"Valentines," Granger said brightly, remembering that asgre meant heart.

"Roses," Weasley looked a bit red at the word he had been given.

"Any specific color?" Granger asked curiously.

He thought about it before answering, "Yellow."

"Why yellow?" She asked.

"Yellow means friendship, right?" Weasley said darkly, "And except for Malfoy, we are friends."

"Nice one, Weasel. I'm impressed. You actually learned something from Herbology after all," Draco said in scorn, silently challenging the redhead to comment as Potter and Granger sent their own glares at Weasley and at him. They did have a truce and no one wanted something as stupid as a game to interfere while they were all trapped together so far from home. He knew enough now to stop irritating the mutt and witch even further so his next words were to answer her challenge instead, "Ring."

He could deal with the youngest Weasley son later. When they were alone and hopefully Mhen was on duty. The female hellhound let him get away with anything, he would just have to remember to repay her for that later.

It was Potter's turn and his answer did not disappoint. "Dueling."

"Messy," Granger said in distaste.

Weasley was still glaring at Draco as he absently responded to her words, "Bath."

"Scrub brush," Draco met his glare with one of his own.

"Bubbles," Potter responded, and Draco noticed that he sat a little more rigidly than before. It was only then he heard the soft whisper of the door shut that the mutt relaxed slightly.

Granger and Weasley obviously had not noticed as they continued their little game. "Soap" was the word that came from Granger's mouth while "water" was the one that escaped from Weasley's. He decided to end it as he looked up to see just whom exactly had walked in the door, "Squid. Are we done here now, sir?"

Seeing the pair jump as Snape spoke was well worth the embarrassment of playing such a ridiculous game, "Yes, you may go now. Lupin will lead you all back."

It was only then that he noticed the bemused werewolf standing timidly in the doorway. The trio were quick to their feet. Knowing Granger and Weasley, they wanted out of the two Slytherins' presence as quickly as possible. Tagging along behind them as they slipped into the hall after the wolf, Draco followed at a more leisurely pace hoping to catch whatever it was that Potter was saying to Snape.

Their conversation was really none of his business but he could help but wonder what his godfather thought of Granger's foolish notion. He was not disappointed when he heard Snape ask, "Just what was all that about?"

"Just a little bit of this and that," Potter said in amusement. "They had a bunch of good ideas. So, care to join me for a dip in the lake and some fun later on?"

Draco decided to pick up his pace. He really did not want to know what those two did in their free time.