There is a completed version elsewhere.  And yes, you read it.  I was wondering if you were going to figure that out.  But the good news is you seem to be enjoying it a lot more this time around!    Thank you for all the reviews.  I should warn you though, last time you weren't fond of Chapter Six - but you came back around for the end. 

Dude - once sends me into tail spin - right to the ice cream.  Harry, he is brave.  Much, much braver than I.  And it IS easy to give advice.  Another part of HBP I loved.  Hermione can totally nail other people's problems - but can't handle her own.  Loved the multiple exchanges between her and Harry that went, "Hermione, can't you just..."  "NO!" 

Thank you!  I think it's amusing - I hope you enjoy it as well!

Naughty?  I say delightful!  I love the idea of someone reading it over and over again. Which might mean I'm the naughty one.  But I can't help it - it makes me go Wheeeeee! 

I am committing myself to having an update to Bumbling for you, (*you know, over there*) by Christmas.  I am putting my betas on notice that they will get something from me this weekend.  Then you can start reading it over and over again here when it starts posting after holidays. 

Thank you!

It's funny - because this is really what I thought I wanted from the real thing, hence the writing it.  I wanted him to have to work for it, rather than it just be easy.  And Rowling gave that to us a bit by making him like her for months in silence.  And then I ended up loving her line about not giving up on him.  Possibly because it reads to me as, "And I'm not giving up now, either," setting up their happy ending. 

Thank you very much.  You will have your wish very soon.

*wince* Ouch. Poor Harry. And poor Ginny too, though probably more poor Harry. That was much too short! I need something longer to sustain me until the next chapter! ^^

So update. Now.

...

Chop, chop, I'm waiting.

n.n

I feel more sorry for Harry, because he is the one who just get stepped on.  But certainly feel sorry for Ginny too.  She's just been rejected, is horribly embarrassed - and is feeling very very ugly.  It's really not the time for the boy she crushed on for years - and then closed her heart to - to show up and annouce he likes her. 

I am happy to say the next three chapters are longer!  Yippie!  And they will go up as soon as my beta is finished with them - but it is exam time, so we both have to be patient.  Stupid school!

And thank you again!  I love people who stop in after each chapter to review!

  Heh.  Sorry - not only are you not going to get that here, but it will never happen in any fic I ever write.  I can't do it.  Writing Harry with anyone else is practically physically impossible for me.  But if it's what you're looking for I can point you in the right direction.  LavenderBrown has written a few.  Also, I very much enjoyed Jenorama'a Reconnecting series.  They are both at Checkmated - and they are both NC17 for a lot of it, but what can you do. 

And I agree with you about his upbringing - he knows very little of love.  And I deal specifically with his lack of physical affection in chapter seven.  Where I was going with this was he is becomming aware of the fact that love/affection is horribly missing from his life and he is developing a longing for it.  How does he know it's Ginny - well, because she is the girl he is currently attracted to, so she is the one that fills that fantasy.

And considering how happy Harry was in HBP, and how he described their relationship, I don't think I'm that far off.  No it's not very realistic at all.  It's very romantic.  In life you don't fall in love with the woman you once watched run after a train when you were eleven - but you do in Potter - and it's a nice world to visit.

And Cho does fit into what you are describing - in that same innocent romantic vein.  Harry fell for Cho before he had even spoken to her - she was an ideal.  And it was when their relationship became real and emotionally complicated that it fell apart.  He didn't love the real Cho after all.  Whereas Ginny he falls for long after he knows her.  So he does learn the lesson you are speaking of, though perhaps not in a gritty realistic way. 

If I were writing my own work - I would totally agree with you, and even do it.  But in this nice little fantasy world Rowling created, the same rules don't necessarily apply.  Kind of the same way I am HORRIFIED at any 18 year old thinking about marriage - but in Potter it gets a pass.