*giggles* The ending of this chapter happened because I was writing at the library while waiting for killer_the_cat to get off work, and she called when I got to that point. I thought I'd have time to finish it, but such was not the case, so I asked thesnapelyone to post the chapter as it was, because I wanted _lore to have to donate as much money to HPQFAC as possible. ^_~

But I'm glad the exposition works for you. It's sort of a years-fly-by-in-minutes, but I didn't want it to feel like I was just telling you stuff. ^_^ *hugs* I'm glad you like it!