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.


"I'm sorry, but I just have to ask this." Lily looked questioningly at Santa and Merlin. "Years ago, I read something that it would never get light on the North Pole in winter and never get dark in the summer. Why do you have normal day and night light here just as in Britain?"

Remus nodded. "A valid question. If that wasn't the case, the full moon would already be up I suppose."

Santa and Claire chuckled. "That is correct," Santa explained, "but when we first moved here more than 1000 years ago, Claire became depressed by the constant dark, and with the help of the North Fir Tree, we charmed the North Pole to be just like our home country, Britain, in this hindsight. That's why our clocks are also set to Greenwich time. The climate, however, is not affected by the changes we made." He pointed outside, only to add, "As you can see."

"Still," his wife added, "I believe that the full moon is going to rise soon, and we should head outside."

"Hawwyy goo!"

"Bobbyy goo!"

Before Lily knew what happened, the twins were already transforming into their canine forms only to dash after the adults faster than she could pull them back.

"Harry, Bobby, come back here this instant!"

To her relief, the twins turned around and trotted back to her, wearing disappointed expressions on their canine faces.

"Tonight, we will not go outside, so please transform back into your human forms. We will ask Holly for dinner and sit here and watch the adults on the screen."

"Oh…"

"… yay."

The twins swiftly changed back, and the three of them made themselves comfortable, while Merlin in his painting witch the screen to display the grounds of the North Pole right in front of Santa's workshop.

HP

Remus noticed in relief that Santa and Claire remained in their human forms, when they headed outside. 'They'll know what they're doing,' he thought. 'Somehow, I'd feel even more uncertain if I was the only human right now.'

He looked up at the sky in anticipation. While Santa had told him that the North Fir Tree could not heal him from lycanthropy, he felt better than he could remember having felt before on the day of the full moon.

Nevertheless, he could feel the moon come up, and to his massive disappointment, he felt the transformation set in. Somehow, it still did not feel like the normal transformation, and he realised that he could still think clearly. However, when he looked up at his friends, Sirius transformed back into his human form, pointed at him and laughed so hard, that he fell over into the snow, where he remained on his back laughing.

=What are you laughing about?= Remus asked; however, the sounds coming out of him only made Sirius laugh even more.

"Moony! You're not a werewolf anymore, you're…" The rest was drowned by more laughter.

=Remus, come over here and look at you.= one of the two reindeer told him, and from its scent, Remus knew that it was Santa. He obediently followed the reindeer to a spot of frozen water. However, the instant he looked at it, a reindeer's face came into view. Remus turned around in surprise, only to realise that it had to be his own face.

=I'm a reindeer?= he asked, incredulously.

=So far, you're a weredeer,= Santa replied. =Now, try to change back into your human form.= With that, Santa and Claire both transformed back.

'I want to transform back, too,' Remus thought, and an instant later, he was back in his human form. He stared at Remus and Claire in disbelief, before he looked up at the moon that was still in full glory. "Look at me, Moon."

Santa, Claire and Sirius laughed out loud, before Santa instructed him, "Transform back."

"Yeah, Moony, come on, let's play." With that, Sirius changed into his canine form.

An instant later, Remus, Santa and Claire were back in their reindeer forms, and the group of Animagi spent a couple of hours playing in the snow to their hearts' desire.

'It's the happiest night of my life,' Remus thought, as he carefully trotted around the grounds with Merlin in his phoenix form safely perched on his back.

HP

"Uncy Mooey no doggy?"

"Hawwynbobby pway wif?"

Seeing the twins cast her pleading looks, Lily let out a deep sigh. "All right, we'll head out onto the grounds in our Animagi forms, but only for ten minutes. It's already beyond your bedtime."

"Kay," the twins replied, simultaneously, transformed and dashed away.

Lily inwardly grinned, when she slowly followed them, knowing that the door was charmed to not let the kids out in their Animagi forms if there was no adult around.

HP

When Lily followed her sons outside in her white dove Animagus form, Merlin waved her over.

#Come and join me on Remus' back for a moment. We need to discuss something.#

'He's beautiful compared to my simple dove form,' Lily thought in regret at her own Animagus form. #What might that be?# she replied, grateful that at least Merlin was a bird and able to communicate with her.

#We need to charm the entries at the Ministry of Magic and pull Remus off the werewolf list and replace your son Harry with your twins Harry and Bobby.#

#Oh, right, we really need to do that. Will the charm work from the North Pole?#

#We'd need to involve Santa. I suggest that we simply deal with it, when we're at the Unspeakables' office tomorrow morning.#

Lily happily agreed, feeling very grateful for the old wizard's support.

HP

It was a few days later during breakfast in the screen room that Lily observed a staff meeting in the headmaster's office at Hogwarts.

"What is that noise, Albus?" Minerva complained, glaring at his glass devices on the side board.

"The blood wards around Harry's house are coming down," Albus replied in apparent annoyance. "I've already contacted Arabella Figg, and she said nothing was out of the order at the Dursleys."

"Albus, who is the boy who lived, by the way, Harry or Bobby Potter?"

Albus frowned. "Pomona, you should know by now that this is about Harry Potter. Who in the world is Bobby Potter?"

"Harry's twin brother," Pomona replied, matter-of-factly.

"Why did you send Harry to the Dursleys at all?" Minerva enquired, grimly, her mouth stretched to a thin line.

"Because he needs his aunt's protection. That's what the blood wards are for." Albus seemed confused, as he glanced at the glassy device that was still emitting noise.

"Well, if they failed now anyway, we could as well raise him here at Hogwarts, couldn't we?" Minerva challenged her old colleague.

"No, Minerva, that's not possible."

"Why not?"

"It's all for the Greater Good, and Harry has to remain where he is," Albus replied, looking up in apparent shock, when the glass device all of a sudden burst into pieces.

"So much about the Greater Good," Minerva commented, dryly, causing everyone on the North Pole to laugh.

"Sorry, I just couldn't help myself," Merlin apologized, grinning broadly. "That's all about the Greater Fun."

tbc...

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