Advance Arrangement
by Teddylonglong

All recognizable characters belong to J. K. Rowling, and I am not earning anything by writing this story. I am not a native speaker of English. Please excuse my mistakes.


During the weeks leading up to Halloween, Lily and James enlisted Charlus' and Merlin's help observing their copies as well as Sirius, Remus and Peter. Merlin was especially helpful. Lily and James learned that the old wizard in the portrait opposite of the screen was Merlin himself. He had died a millennium ago, and Santa had brought him to the North Pole in the form of the painting. Only a decade ago, Merlin had managed to develop a charm to leave his portrait in his phoenix Animagus form, and Santa had taken him to the North Fir Tree.

The North Fir Tree was the most powerful magical existence in the world and possessed the so-called magic of the North Pole. Using one of the tree's cones, Merlin had been de-aged to a twenty-year-old and had begun a new life for himself.

Lily found that she was fascinated by the story, however, could not help wondering why Merlin was still in his portrait. When she voiced her question, Merlin only pointed out that it was magic. "With magic, almost everything is possible."

"That's true," Lily acknowledged, although the question remained.

"That's because you're muggleborn and are used to question everything. With magic, not everything is evident," James told her, only to add as an afterthought, "although I clearly prefer being able to comprehend the magic behind something."

Lily nodded, smiling at her husband who was her best friend at the same time.

Usually, Lily and James could only observe their copies and friends on the screen, when Harry was asleep or occupied by Santa, Claire, Charlus, Merlin or the elves. If Harry saw Sirius on the screen, he would surely demand to meet his beloved Padfoot, and Lily could only imagine what the child's reaction would be upon seeing his own copy at his previous home.

Their copies' as well as their friends' behaviour was extremely normal. No one seemed to suspect that Lily, James and Harry were not who they were supposed to be. 'Well, they are,' Lily told herself. 'They are exact copies of us.'

HP

Harry seemed to fully enjoy his new life on the North Pole. The elves allowed him to watch them make toys and other goodies for Christmas. He was even allowed to assist, as much as a fifteen-month-old magical child was able to help. Cute as he was, Harry always received one or the other toy – much to Lily's chagrin, as she did not want him to get spoiled too much.

One day, Santa introduced him to the white puppies, which for Harry seemed to be the absolute highlight of his new life. From that time onwards, he spent as much time with the puppies as the adults let him. The dogs in turn seemed to adore the little tyke, who was almost of the same size as them. To Lily's relief, they were very careful with him and only licked his face and hands, while they pulled each other into canine mock fights every now and then.

'As powerful as he is, I wouldn't be surprised if he let out accidental magic to transform into a white puppy as well some time,' Lily thought in amusement.

HP

Knowing that she suspected that the attack would occur on Halloween, Santa and Claire gathered Harry and the puppies for a long walk around the snowy grounds, before they allowed them to play with the reindeer for a while. Afterwards, they ushered Harry and the puppies onto Santa's favourite sleigh, stating that the reindeer needed some occasional practice to be fit on time for Christmas.

Tired from the long walk and excited from the trip around the world on a sleigh, Harry was exhausted enough to sleep. Together with one of the puppies, who seemed to be his favourite, he was lying in front of the fireplace in the screen room and slept through the afternoon.

In the meantime, Lily and James observed in horror how Peter, their supposed to be good friend, gave them away to Voldemort. Kneeling in front of the evil wizard, he uttered, "My Lord, I am the Potters' Secret Keeper. They live at…"

"Peter, you little shite!" James rose from his seat in understandable anger, kicking his fists into the air so as to fight his so-called friend.

"James, please calm down. Don't wake up Harry." Lily gently pulled him back onto the sofa, while Merlin switched the screen to display their home at Godric's Hollow. "We knew that it was going to happen."

"Yes, but did you know that Peter would betray us? Shy, insecure Peter, whom we helped through all his Hogwarts years? With whom we shared all our secrets and made him our Secret Keeper?"

Lily shook her head. "No." She let out a deep sigh. "We trusted the wrong man, James. We couldn't know."

"I trusted him more than Remus." He stared at her with tears welling in his eyes. "Lils, I am a horrible friend. Everything is difficult enough for Moony."

"I know," Lily replied in a soothing voice. "We'll tell Remus and Sirius everything."

"Yes," James agreed. "We owe it to them."

HP

It was a few hours later, and Harry was already asleep in his bed, when they observed how Voldemort arrived at their home and killed their copies, before the killing curse he cast at Copy Harry backfired and hit him, causing him to vanish from the sight.

James' eyes widened in apparent shock. "Where did he go? Why isn't there a body? Isn't he supposed to be dead, after the killing curse backfired?"

Merlin and Santa exchanged a look. "He's gone for now, but as he made very dark items, he cannot easily be killed. He will come back eventually."

"What does that mean, and what can we do to get rid of him?"

"Sorry, but can I go and look after Copy Harry? Don't you hear him crying?" Lily spoke up, her mother instincts kicking in, even if knowing that the baby was only a copy of her Harry. 'He's still my child,' she realised, sighing in relief, when Sirius showed up in the badly destroyed house.

From that time onwards, everything happened very fast. Hagrid joined Sirius demanding that he should hand Harry over to him according to Dumbledore's orders.

To Lily's horror, Sirius obeyed the half-giant. "Sirius, don't!" she shouted in devastation. "What is Dumbledore playing at?" she uttered, more to herself than to the others.

When Hagrid cuddled Harry close and boarded Sirius' motorbike, which the Marauder had offered for him to use, Merlin switched the screen to view Sirius.

Together, they watched how Peter betrayed Sirius as well and blew up the street, before he transformed into his Animagus form and vanished from the sight.

"Idiot. You're Harry's godfather. You should have left Peter to the Aurors," Lily scolded the Marauder, not caring that he could not hear her. "Where's Harry now?" she asked Merlin, who once again switched the screen to display Copy Harry, who was fast asleep in Hagrid's arm. The half giant just landed the motorbike on a small street. It was too dark to see where they were; however, Lily inwardly groaned, when Hagrid handed the baby to Dumbledore, who seemed to have been waiting for him together with Minerva.

"No!" she shouted in horror, when Dumbledore lowered Harry onto what she recognised as the Dursleys' doorstep. She noticed with satisfaction how Minerva fiercely protested stating that she wanted to take Harry in. However, Dumbledore remained firm, and everyone left, leaving her baby alone with what seemed to be a letter to Petunia.

Tears were freely running down her cheeks now. "Lily, don't worry. We've given detailed instructions in our will, and I'm sure that Sirius will be free and able to take him in tomorrow. Otherwise, Remus, Minerva, Amelia or even Snape will be there for him. Let's see how this develops and how long the copy will exist anyway."

HP

Lily, James, Charlus and Merlin spent the rest of the night in front of the screen switching between the Aurors' place, Dumbledore's office and Remus' shabby home, where the werewolf was listening to the wireless radio crying his eyes out.

"First thing in the morning, we'll send a sleigh and fetch Remus here," Merlin promised. "I will accompany Holly in my Unspeakable form, before I'll head to the Ministry of Magic and speak with Amelia Bones. I take it that you trust her?"

"Of course." Lily smiled. "She is one of the people listed in our will as possible guardian for Harry, just like Minerva McGonagall and Severus Snape."

"Do you wish to inform the two of them as well?"

"Perhaps, Remus can inform them, once we've told him everything." Lily smiled at the thought of having their best friends with them on the North Pole soon. Her smile did not really reach her eyes, the idea of her baby spending too many minutes with her horrible sister lingering in her mind.

tbc...

Thank you for the kind reviews for the previous chapter. Please continue feeding my muse. Any ideas, suggestions or opinions are welcome.