Harry knew the family couldn't openly cross the borders of England without triggering alarms within the magical community. He wasn't at all sure where all those alarms were located or whom they'd alert when they were triggered. But the family had gone to Ireland, Scotland, Wales and even to Majorca before so they all knew it was clearly possible for them to leave. And once they got out of Britain, who was to say when or if they would return? Just because you made travel plans with an itinerary, a beginning date and a returning date didn't mean you had to actually abide by those plans. As good as Dumbledore was at controlling his playing pieces, he couldn't have the entire border of four or more different countries completely monitored. Not when there was free flowing water between them. Besides, who was to say the family hadn't only been going on another of their vacation or business trips? He'd have no way to know when to expect them to return. So there was a better than average chance they'd succeed in their bid for freedom.
Petunia had stocked the house with everything Harry might need to survive until it was time for him to return to the school. All of them knew his chances of being able to return to Privet Drive after this summer were slim to none. But they planned as if he'd still be in need of the house anyway. The chances of the disappearance of the Dursley trio going unnoticed for a full year weren't very high. Especially when Dudley never showed up at Smeltings. But it's what they were all hoping for. And they did know there was a chance, since Harry didn't ever return here during school breaks and never spoke to anyone about his summer if he could avoid it. He only ever came back here during the summer when he had no place else to stay. And considering what he'd told them of his life in that world, his life there was even worse than the life they'd given him here. So there never was a choice of where he'd spend his summers.
He had spent a couple of weeks at the home of the redheads during his first summer home but not even he had wanted to repeat that stay in the subsequent years. He said he'd been placed into a room with Ron, the boy he was supposedly friends with, and spent the entire time being bombarded with how hard pressed the family was and fawned over by both the Mother and daughter in a way that had made him more than a touch uncomfortable. Ron had spent the entire visit complaining about how Harry had more money and could afford nicer things than he could. All the while never seeming to notice Harry had none of these nice things he was whining about not having. He'd even refused to go there again when he was invited for some big sporting event they wanted him to go with them to. Harry had told his Aunt they only wanted him to go because of who he was over there. Not because they actually liked him or wanted him around. So she told Vernon to refuse him permission and not to let the wizards force the issue. Vernon took them all away the night before the proposed retrieval date so no one was there when the redheads showed up to get Harry. They'd stayed away all weekend just so Harry couldn't be forced to stay with them again. The fact that someone had shown up to get Harry that time, as was obvious by the missing note Vernon had left for them, proved the wizards weren't actually monitoring the family all that closely.
And that meant if he made it through the summer without anyone noticing the Dursley's weren't around, there was just as good a chance their absence wouldn't be noticed until the upcoming end of the school year when they didn't arrive at King's Cross to greet the train. Even that wasn't likely to say anything though since he'd been returned to them via a special form of transportation straight from the school each year he'd been attending that damn school.
Petunia had even put in a long term request with a local cabbie for Harry to be picked up at the house and delivered to King's Cross Station in London on September the 1st. She'd had to pay a rather hefty deposit for the order since that was a good two months down the line from when she'd made the request, but she didn't care because she knew he couldn't get there any other way. And he had to return to school on time one way or the other.
Dudley had been pulled out of Smeltings with no forwarding address or school listed in his records to trace him through. All it took was a discreet call from Vernon's boss to the administrator of the school once Vernon had explained to his long time boss why he needed to remove his family from England as fast as possible and on the qt. Harry had confirmed that Dumbledore and several other high level people over there knew what school Dudley attended as well as what company Vernon worked for. Just as they knew Petunia was a stay-at-home parent and something of a social gadfly. So, with them trying to distance themselves from Harry, it was no longer safe for them to be so easy to find. All of them had to change such easy to identify markers about themselves.
Nor was Dudley allowed to give his buddies a heads up to the family's move. Both Vernon and Petunia knew the wizards would run interrogations in the neighborhood in an attempt to reacquire them and if they found one of Dudley's friends whom he had blabbed to, it'd be all over except for the crying as the saying went. For that reason, neither adult even told Dudley they weren't returning to the house. They told him only that they were going on a summer long vacation and he'd know where to when they arrived at their location. He was allowed to tell his friends that much so they wouldn't come to the house looking for him. Dudley's friends had never been all that nice to Harry and wouldn't hesitate to make problems for him if they realized he was there alone. Needless to say Dudley had decided they were going to Disneyland since he really wanted to go there and that was what he told his buddies.
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