Disclaimer: All Harry Potter related characters belong to J.K. Rowling. Lichen and all the other faeries belong to me.

No Good Deed…

By: Ysidro

Story 4

Lichen watches Severus prepare a potion.

"What are you doing?" Lichen asked, cocking his head as he watched Severus prepare the ingredients for a potion. "Looks hard."

"If you must know Lichen, I am preparing the ingredients for a potion used to cure mumps."

"Oooo…what are you preparing?" Lichen asked as he flew closer to Severus' laboratory desk. He had learned to stay out of knife reach the hard way.

"I am cutting up maggots into equal pieces," Severus replied simply. "Not brain surgery, but it requires concentration."

Severus took out a pail full of maggots that were writhing in a squirmy pile. After years of making potions, the teacher was no longer squeamish. While most of his fellows would have run out the room in disgust or been sick on the stone floor, Snape just acted as if it was business as usual. He noticed that Lichen flew closer as he picked up the first maggot.

"Sev, it's talking!" Lichen said, an expression of fear on his face. "I can hear it talking."

"Bloody Hell, Lichen, what do you want now?" Severus set down his knife on the chopping block in disgust, a sneer on his face. "I am trying to make a living."

"That's what the maggot wants to be doing now Sev," Lichen's voice was deathly serious. "It wants to be living."

Lichen began to make squelching sounds while screwing up his face. Severus assumed the faerie was speaking maggot or something. Lichen was getting dangerously close to the chopping block, and if he wasn't careful, Severus would have to heal his wings for the umpteenth time.

"Then what the Hell is the damned maggot saying Lichen?" Severus asked impatiently. He still had marking to do and could not waste his time. "I know you're going to tell me, so do it now!"

"It's saying…" Lichen began to cup his hand over his ear. "It's saying not to kill it. It's saying it has its own maggot family that it provides for. It's saying it has a wife and kids Sev! If you kill it now, who will make a living for its little maggot children?"

Severus wasn't sure whether to be sad or disgusted. He had never thought of the maggots having families…let alone all of the other animals he had pickled chopped and mangled. He was confused about this…wrinkle in his usual routine. He dropped the maggot back in the bucket as he set his knife aside.

"HA!" Lichen yelled, flying around while doubled-over laughing. He could tell when Severus was hesitating. "You believed that? You believed that maggot story! And I thought I was gullible!"

"Shut up you damned sprite!" Snape laughed, smiling at his stupidity. He could handle spying for the Order of the Phoenix, but apparently could be talked into believing maggots could talk. "We both know maggots can't talk. Now let me be!"

"Don't let the animal-talent faeries hear you," Lichen said, smiling as he let Snape continue on with his work. "I'm just a prince; I can't talk to animals. But animal-talent faeries can speak to any animal. My friend Marigold can speak chipmunk, unicorn, phoenix, squid, and even blue jay. She could tell you what that maggot was saying, but something tells me you wouldn't want to know."

"I don't Lichen," was Severus' response.

However, Snape couldn't help but hesitate before continuing on with his chopping.

************

Story 5

Lichen, Squash, and Marigold find a quill.

"Is he here yet?" Squash whined as he fluttered near Snape's office door. "You said he'd be here soon Lichen."

"Oh be quiet Squishy," Marigold retorted, swatting her brother upside his orange-haired head. "If Prince Lichen says Severus will come, he will."

Squash stuck out his tongue at his sister as she turned her golden-locked head away. She flew over to Severus' desk with an interested look on her face. Lichen took this as a golden opportunity to show his ample knowledge of Snape's life, so he followed her to the desk.

"This is Severus' desk," he announced, puffing out his chest and waving his hand towards the pewter paper-weight he generally sat on. "You can sit here if you want to Goldie."

"Why thank you Your Highness," Marigold replied, curtseying before seating herself on the chair. "That was very kind of you."

"So, what does Severus do in here anyways?" Squash intervened as Lichen's face turned beet red. "You keep on telling us how great he is and all that, but what does he do?"

"Well, he…uh…marks!" Lichen said, flying to where a bunch of essays were sitting on the desk. "See, here's some of his marking…stuff."

"It doesn't look like much to me," Squash said. "Just a bunch of scribbles if you ask me."

"That's because it's not done yet!" Lichen protested. He couldn't risk Goldie losing interest and going back to the Village before she met Severus. "He has to put a letter on it."

"That's all he does…put a letter on the paper?" Goldie asked from her seat.

"There's a very complex code you have to use to let the students know how well they did," Lichen smiled as he gestured towards a spare quill lying beside Snape's inkwell. "Luckily, I know the code; Severus explained it to me once. Then he just dips the quill in the ink and writes the letter on the paper."

"I know!" Squash announced as he fluttered around like a possessed faerie. "We should do some of this marking for Severus to say thanks!"

Thus, Squash and Goldie handled the quill as Lichen explained the complex code system behind Severus' marking. Severus ended up not appearing until after dark, so the faeries had long since departed. The Potions teacher did not recollect ever marking the essays, but he had been under a lot of pressure preparing Pepper-Up potions for the Hospital Wing.

The next day, Neville Longbottom was surprised to find he had received an 'A' on his Potions' essay. In fact, the entire Griffindor House had received 'A's, which Hermoine Granger stated was because Professor Snape was not nearly as cold-hearted he appeared.

Draco Malfoy was even more shocked however, when he saw a large red 'L' on the front of his essay.