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.


Lily smiled, as she looked after Harry and Santa. 'Thank Merlin everything went well,' she thought in relief, absentmindedly nodding, when Claire offered to have breakfast.

She enjoyed the most delicious tea she had ever tasted, when James suddenly let out a groan. "Oh no, I am a horrible friend. Due to all the hassle about Sirius and Bobby, I completely forgot to fetch Remus here."

Sirius jumped from his seat. "Right. I'll go and get him."

"I shall accompany you. Grab my tail feathers." Merlin transformed into his phoenix form and, as soon as Sirius held on to his back, flashed away.

'Sirius must be more careful. He could have hurt Merlin,' Lily thought, noticing gratefully that Claire swiftly switched the screen to display Remus' home.

HP

Remus Lupin was sitting at the table in his living room with a large tome lying open on the table along with a mug of tea. While he occasionally took a sip from the mug, he had not read a single word during the last twenty or more hours.

'I can't believe it. James and Lily gone and Peter a traitor,' he thought for the umpteenth time. 'Where is Sirius? For him, it's probably not as bad as for me, as he isn't scum like myself and has his work, but still… He's probably busy trying to get custody over Harry. I hope he'll be able to at least get him from the Dursleys. If he receives the guardianship over him, I have time. I can watch Harry. Oh no, I can't. I am a werewolf.' Once again, tears threatened to leak from his eyes at the thought of what he had lost during the last 36 hours. His whole family.

He was brought out of his musings by the sound of the doorbell. Hope welled up in his traitorous mind, and he hurried to open the front door.

"Sirius!"

An instant later, they were lying in each other's arms, before Sirius let go and instructed him in apparent excitement, "Come with me. Grab the phoenix' tail feathers together with me. Everything is better than it seems. Come and I'll explain." He then held on to the phoenix' back.

'I have nothing to lose,' Remus thought, pushing all questions if this was really Sirius, considering how carefree he seemed to be, about their destiny as well as about the phoenix from the front of his mind, as he obediently reached out to hold on to a couple of feathers.

HP

"That's typical for Sirius." Lily groaned. "He should have explained everything to Remus before bringing him here."

"Explained what to me?"

Lily chuckled, realising that Remus had only heard her last sentence but obviously not realised who had been talking.

"Remus!" James rose from his seat and pulled his friend into a bear's hug. "Relax, Moony. We are who we seem to be. The people at Godric's Hollow, who died that night, were only copies of us."

Remus stared from James to her. "Sirius, is this only a good dream? What did you do to me? Where are we?" He looked at Merlin, seemingly startled, when he changed back from his phoenix form.

"Mr. Lupin, let me explain everything to you. However, I suggest that you sit down and have breakfast with us. I for one am famished."

Sirius pulled him onto the sofa and made him sit next to Bobby, before he lowered himself into the seat next to him.

"First of all, this place is Santa's Workshop on the North Pole." Ignoring Remus' light scoff of apparent disbelief, Merlin continued, "This is Claire, Santa's wife, and I am Merlin, his brother."

"Merlin?" Remus' eyes narrowed.

"Welcome to the North Pole, dear." Claire smiled. "Santa will be back shortly. He has just taken Harry somewhere."

"Harry?" Remus stared at her son.

"Remus." Lily could not help laughing. "Perhaps, I should better explain. We knew that we were going to die and with the help of Unspeakables Merlin and Caesar made copies of the three of us. Afterwards, we went into hiding here on the North Pole." She told Remus the whole story, not really expecting him to believe everything.

However, Remus completely surprised her. "Your scent is right," he stated, matter-of-factly. "If James or Sirius would have told me such a story, I wouldn't have believed it, but you have never lied to me." He nodded at Claire and Merlin. "Claire, I thank you very much for your hospitality. It means the world to me that my friends are alive. Merlin, I am extremely honoured to meet you in person, which I would have never believed to be possible until now."

Just then, Santa returned with three white puppies in tow; however, Harry was nowhere to be seen.

"Santa, where is Harry?" Lily asked in utmost concern, before Claire introduced her husband to Remus.

Just then, one of the white puppies inefficiently tried to jump onto her lap, while another jumped onto the sofa and came to sit between Bobby and Remus, causing Santa to chuckle.

"That's how my white puppies are able to jump. This is Claws, by the way, and he is going to be Bobby's familiar."

Lily looked at the white dog with its front paws on her lap, finding herself staring into her own emerald eyes. "Harry!" She gently pulled the canine up onto her lap, where he lay down in apparent exhaustion. "Santa, did you change him, so he could play with the puppies?"

Santa cast her a look of pure disbelief. "Why would I do such a thing? No, he let out a bout of accidental magic, after Paws bonded with him."

Lily noticed that the third dog was nestled on her feet.

"I am not sure if that was accidental magic." Merlin looked pensive.

"I agree. To me, it seemed as if he was concentrating and purposefully transformed into a puppy." Santa grinned. "He probably wanted to change before, but now with the magic of the North Pole at his disposal he was able to do it."

Lily was not even surprised, when Bobby changed into a puppy as well, as soon as he woke up and Claws bonded with him.

HP

The enlarged family spent the whole morning in the screen room, chatting and drinking tea, before Charlus suddenly entered the room together with Holly.

"Charlus, where have you been?" Lily was the first to ask.

"Good morning to you too, dear." Charlus grinned, before he noticed Remus. "Remus, did they finally manage to bring you here? I am happy to see you."

"Mr. Potter." Remus stared at the man in surprise. "Is Mrs. Potter alive as well?"

Charlus shook his head and let out a deep sigh. "Lily Potter is the only Mrs. Potter at this time."

He poured himself some tea, before he explained, "Together with Head Unspeakable Croaker, I visited Buckbean, our account manager at Gringotts. Fortunately, he is working closely together with the Unspeakables, so that we could tell him the truth without having to worry about the secret leaking out. He reversed everything that Dumbledore did, and as a result, the goblins have locked Dumbledore's accounts for a year. It is up to you if you're going to take further measures against him."

Lily let out a deep sigh. "On the one hand, I really want him to be punished for what he did to Sirius and Harry, but on the other hand, he is not outright evil."

Charlus let out a scoff. "That's only because you haven't heard of everything he's done by now. He set up a monthly stipend to himself for being Harry's guardian, the Dursleys for raising him, his brother Aberforth for helping him to keep Harry safe and the Weasleys for friending him once he is going to attend Hogwarts. He even set up a betrothal contract for Harry and Ginevra Weasley."

"What? That is an attempt of line theft," James growled.

"I am very tempted to go to see him and give him a piece of my mind," Lily hissed.

Merlin shook his head. "No, please don't. Your sons need you here, and it might not be safe to do anything against Dumbledore. I can't tell you more right now, because I only have a suspicion, nothing more at this stage."

tbc...

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