diff --git a/lisp/emacs-lisp/package-activate.el b/lisp/emacs-lisp/package-activate.el
index 48eccb2e50a..e130304be5c 100644
--- a/lisp/emacs-lisp/package-activate.el
+++ b/lisp/emacs-lisp/package-activate.el
@@ -329,7 +329,6 @@ PKG-DESC is a `package-desc' object."
    (format "%s-autoloads" (package-desc-name pkg-desc))
    (package-desc-dir pkg-desc)))
 
-(defvar Info-directory-list)
 (declare-function info-initialize "info" ())
 
 (defvar package--quickstart-pkgs t
@@ -340,6 +339,7 @@ PKG-DESC is a `package-desc' object."
   (when (file-exists-p (expand-file-name "dir" pkg-dir))
     ;; FIXME: not the friendliest, but simple.
     (require 'info)
+    (defvar Info-directory-list)
     (info-initialize)
     (add-to-list 'Info-directory-list pkg-dir)))
 
diff --git a/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el b/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el
index c928aeb0ed3..f1bdeefc226 100644
--- a/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el
+++ b/lisp/emacs-lisp/package.el
@@ -4524,6 +4524,8 @@ The list is displayed in a buffer named `*Packages*'."
 
 ;;;; Quickstart: precompute activation actions for faster start up.
 
+(defvar Info-directory-list)
+
 ;; Activating packages via `package-initialize' is costly: for N installed
 ;; packages, it needs to read all N <pkg>-pkg.el files first to decide
 ;; which packages to activate, and then again N <pkg>-autoloads.el files.