Sylvie left me alone the rest of the night. I met Rupert, who talked about all the changes he planned to make to the Leaky Cauldron—including a name change, though certainly not the Enchanted Garden as his sister wanted to call it—and I kept my mouth shut about his lack of authority. I would talk to them all about it later tonight, when all the guests had left.
Finally, after the last visitor bid goodbye, I invited Tom's family to join me for a round of drinks on me at the Leaky Cauldron. They happily assented, and not five minutes later I was leading them all into my tavern. "Vieira!" I called to the bartender. "Their drinks are on me; serve them whatever they'd like up in private suite three. I'll take care of things down here until you're done."
She nodded smartly and escorted the family upstairs. When she came down to reclaim her place at the bar, her eyes were full of tears. "Hannah, they're discussing how to change the Leaky Cauldron," she blurted. "You're not going to let them, are you?"
I reassured her that no, the Leaky Cauldron would not be changed, while explaining that they were under the impression that they had inherited the building from Tom. Anything they said could be disregarded.
I slipped a few items into my pocket before joining them in the suite. "We have some business to discuss," I said as I entered.
Rupert smirked at me. "Actually, we have some business to discuss, which doesn't involve you. Uncle Tom may have let you run the place recently, but that will be changing now that the rest of us are here."
"How so?" I asked innocently.
"You see," he explained as if talking to a dim-witted child, "Bartenders are employees who have no business telling their employers what to do. Sylvie claims you tried to tell her that the God-awful name of this place wouldn't be changed, and I'm saying you've crossed the line, Abbott."
"Actually," I retorted, "None of you have any business telling me how to run my tavern."
Just a warning: I'm currently on vacation. My internet access is sporadic at best. I'll write while I'm here, and post if I can. If not, I'll have prewritten chapters to post when I get home in about ten days.
This chapter's question: Is it acceptable for Hannah to sell Muggle liquors in the Leaky Cauldron, or do I need to invent some specific to the Wizarding world? Because there's absolutely no way that the only alcoholic drink she serves is firewhisky—it would be like serving nothing but beer. Ugh. Your opinion please?