Valancy - Thanks so much for reviewing! I'm glad you agree with the idea of Petunia being jealous and such. Sorry it took me so long to update, but I really hope you enjoy this next chapter!

Once again I wanna take my great BETA, Magistera. Without Magistera, this story would be… well… really bad, haha. On with the show!

By Any Other Name

Chapter 2

"'Tunia." A whisper drifted into the girls dream. She had been busy vanquishing evil and was just about to receive her reward. The interruption caused her dream world to disappear as her eyes slowly opened. Her gaze focused on the anxious face peering down at her. "'Tunia!" the voice squealed.

"Mm.. what do you want?" Petunia asked in a groggy voice as she gingerly sat up. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes and swallowed a yawn.

"I have an idea!" Lily squeaked, bouncing up and down on her sister's bed. She clasped Petunia's hands and just beamed at her, breathlessly awaiting a response.

"Well, what is it?" Petunia asked, feeling a hint of curiosity.

"Let's go searching for the Leaky Cauldron!" Lily pulled the Hogwarts letter from her back pocket. "I mean, the directions are here, we may as well explore! Besides, even if it is all a lie, we'll still get a day trip down to the city. And I'm sure you could make a story out of it all!"

With a grunt and a growl, Petunia stood up, forcing Lily to jump swiftly off the bed to her feet. Her younger sister's excited ramblings had a way of rousing her into action. Petunia stumbled towards her bedroom door, heading for the bathroom.

"Does that mean we're going!" Lily nearly shrieked, still managing to keep her voice in a whisper.

"Why not?" was the response as Petunia continued her stagger down the hallway. Her initial uneasy feelings over the entire situation seemed to have disappeared during the course of the night. She had become even more curious about the magical world that the bizarre letter had suggested. It was not something she could just ignore. Petunia realized that even if she couldn't do the magic herself, she still had a golden opportunity to immerse herself in its world.

Half an hour later Petunia emerged from the bathroom, ready to face the day. She shot a grin at her younger sister before finally noticing the time on her bedside clock. Her face fell.

"Are you serious? It's only 6:30 in the morning!" She rounded on her sister, staring Lily down. The younger girl gave an innocent giggle and scrunched down into the nearest corner, feigning fear of sisterly retribution. "I doubt the buses are even running."

"But they are! I checked!" Lily retorted, a pleading tone creeping into her voice. It was enough to make anyone crumble. Petunia's eyes softened and she patted her sister on the head before snatching her tattered backpack off the couch.

"Fine, if you're so set on it, let's head out, shall we?" She slung her bag over her shoulder and stepped out into the morning air. Petunia had taken extra care in getting prepared for the day's trip. Emblazoned on her shirt was a rearing unicorn and she wore her best pair of hip-hugging slacks.

After a few confused trips back and forth on the bus, the Evans sisters finally found their way into London. Lily wrinkled her nose as she attempted to make sense of the directions written at the bottom of her Hogwarts letter. The two ended up wandering for a few hours, turning down the wrong roads and ending up in unexpected locations around the city. Finally, with Big Ben chiming a pleasant ten o' clock, they found the street where the Leaky Cauldron presided.

As they walked down the crowded street, Petunia could feel her heart beat faster. This was the moment of truth. If she saw a sign heralding a pub called the Leaky Cauldron, her dreams would become reality. If the street ended and they didn't see the bar, she would return to being just another flighty little girl with her head in the clouds. She took a few deep breaths to steady herself, barely aware of her surroundings.

"There it is!" Lily broke out, her finger shooting towards a rickety old building that Petunia could have sworn wasn't there a moment ago. "It's really real, 'Tunia! The letter... the letter wasn't lying!" Lily gasped for breath, her eyes growing larger by the second. She whirled to face her sister, drawing them both to a stop on the crowded sidewalk. Lily clutched Petunia's hands desperately. "D-do you know what this means?"

"Hm? What?" Petunia murmured, her attention remaining steadfast on the swaying Leaky Cauldron billboard. It wasn't disappearing as she'd dreaded it might. The small pub was still there as was the hope blossoming in her heart. This was almost too good to be real.

"I'm going... to a school of witchcraft and wizardry!" Lily shouted, her voice raising a few octaves as she was overcome with sheer excitement. A few passersby sent her venomous looks and steered their paths away from the two sisters. Abruptly, Lily grabbed hold of a frail, old man who was hobbling past. She whipped him around to face the saloon and pointed at the front door. "Do you see that?" she demanded, her voice unusually stern. "That pub, right there?" He returned her stare with one of absolute horror. Lily let his arm go slowly before offering a sheepish grin. "I suppose not, silly me. Sorry about all that." She patted his arm before watching him trudge away, a disgusted expression crossing his face.

Petunia doubled over in a fit of raucous laughter, with a few involuntary snorts escaping as she tried to control herself. Shaking her head, she grabbed Lily's hand. Still chuckling, she dragged her younger sister, who was still trying to find someone who could see the pub, straight through the door and into the bar itself. As the door closed behind them Petunia felt as though she might just melt from the celebration that exploded inside her.

The tavern was shabby and in need of repairs here and there. The lighting was absolutely terrible and a musty scent pervaded the air. None of that mattered to Petunia. All she could pay attention to was the robes everyone wore and the woman sitting in a corner, looking on as her knife and fork cut her omelet into slivers without the help of her hands. She was staring, open-mouthed, at the array of inhabitants, some of whom she swore couldn't be completely human. This was her element, this was her home.

"'Tunia?" Lily muttered tentatively, knocking her elder sister out of her mystified daze. "We're in, now what?" The usually bold Lily had shrunk into herself nervously as her eyes dashed from one bizarre character to the next. She wasn't as prepared to see real magic as she thought. She clung close to her sister instead as they made their way to the dingy counter.

A bald man stood behind the bar, a smirk twisting his face. He leaned on his elbow to bring his face level with the young girls standing hopefully at the bar as he quirked his head to the side. "What'll it be, ladies?"

"Er, uhm... that is..." Petunia cleared her throat a few times, drawing herself up to her full height. "We... we would like to go to Diagon Alley."

His face broke out into a knowing grin as he wheezed out a few chuckles.

"Hog-hogwarts? Dumbledore?" Petunia uttered desperately as she struggled to comprehend what was so funny. Nervously, she pushed Lily a bit behind her in case the toothless bartender proved to be dangerous.

"Yeah, yeah, and I'll reckon yer first years, eh?" he leered.

Both sisters nodded in nervous unison.

"Bloody… why can't he tell them to enter somewhere else," the bartender broke out into low grumbles that Petunia assumed she really wasn't intended to hear. She offered him an uneasy smile as he stomped out from behind the bar. "Right you are, follow me." The girls trailed obediently as he lumbered out into a quaint courtyard behind the bar.

"Now, watch carefully," he rasped, pulling a wand from the deep pockets of his soiled apron. Petunia thought she'd faint just from the sight of something so magical. "Once you get yer own wands, I ain't doing this fer ya no more."

"You mean I get one of those?" Lily piped up for the first time since entering the inn. She shrank back into herself again when the bartender sneered at her.

"How else would ya do any schoolwork?" A short laugh escaped him. Without another word, the bartender tapped the wall three times with the end of his wand. As the bricks began to squirm before their eyes, he turned and headed back into the bar.

Petunia managed to momentarily drag her attention away from the morphing bricks to yell out her gratitude to his retreating back. By the time she had returned to watching the wall, the bricks had moved around to form an archway. She could feel the pressure of Lily's hand tighten furiously on her own.

"Are you ready then, Lily?" Petunia asked, her heart beating so rapidly that she believed it would simply combust. "To enter Diagon Alley?"