My statement was met with complete silence for nearly a minute until Rupert collected himself enough to respond. "Hannah, you're fired," he finally said.
"From what?" I provoked.
"From the Leaky Cauldron!" Sylvie shrieked. "I told you that if you didn't stop your little games, Rupert would fire you. You should have listened to me."
What did it take to get through to these people? "Would you like to leave my tavern now or in the morning?" My voice was sickeningly sweet, I thought. Couldn't they tell?
"You don't have a tavern to kick us out of!" another cousin shouted. "Rupert owns it all!"
"Would you like to see the deed?" I asked. "It has my name on it, you know. And if that isn't enough proof, I'll call Tom's lawyer to come over and explain it to you." I had barely finished speaking when I pulled the deed from my pocket. "Take a look," I offered them. "It's protected with Mr. Durand's finest charms, so don't even think about destroying it."
Once they had all passed the deed around and it was safely back in my possession, I gave them an ultimatum. "You can choose: either leave now, or pay for a room for the night. I don't run a charity house for people that spend their time trying to control my tavern."
Grumbling, each of them stood up and walked out. I followed them down the stairs to the door, smiling the whole way. When I said goodbye, they didn't respond. I was starting to see why Tom made sure they couldn't get their greedy hands on this place.
Vieira and I had a celebratory mug of coffee with Bailey's, a Muggle liqueur we'd grown quite fond of. At the moment, she was my only employee; I would need to hire at least two more if I didn't want both of us to have to work twenty-four hours a day.
"I'm not going to really change this place," I told her as we sipped our coffees. "I would like to spruce it up a bit, though. We need to update a few things, or it will just be too sad for me to be here. Would you like to help?"
Of course she agreed, and we stayed up chatting long into the night, discussing what kinds of subtle renovations we could give the charming old tavern.
Eek! We're catching up on what I've prewritten, so I need to get working.
This chapter's question: the title. I'm not sure I like calling it "Something to Try" and I'd like to rename it. The only problem is that I can't seem to think of any good enough titles. So your challenge is to suggest a name for this little story. If I choose yours, you'll get a preview of chapter eight.
Also, there are some of you whom I owe a preview. You know who you are. That will be chapter eight, as well. If you win another preview with this challenge, I'll send you eight and nine.