Mea Culpa! Harry always at Privet Drive at least until his birthday

[samnanya]

No: HPFGUIDX 92232

I was clearly wrong. Harry was always at Privet Drive on his birthday
- but not long afterwards -- left next day in PoA.....
So does Harry split on or before his birthday? That is the question...
....
The departure times ......
SS - see below
CoS - Ron Fred and George spring Harry from the Dursleys 3 (or maybe 
4) days after his birthday ("I know what day it is" pg 8 us pbck, pg 
22-23 bars on windows.... three days later....)
PoA - leaves the day after his birthday ((pg 15 us pbck) after blowing 
up Marge (pg 30 us pbck)
GoF - there was still a fortnight to go before he went back to school 
(pg 20 us hc), birthday cards from HG and RW (pg 21 us hc)
OOP - throws away birthday presents (pg 8 us hc) 
In OOP, he is out of the Dursleys in early August.

So much for movie contamination!


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Samnanya quoted from JKR's recent chat:
Adele - Will poor Harry be stuck at the Dursley's all next summer
JKR - Not all summer, no. In fact, he has the shortest stay in
Privet Drive so far.
 
Samnanya then added:
Which to me means that he must leave before his 16th birthday (In SS 
 he leaves with Dursleys 2 days before his 11th Birthday)
  
To which Eustace_Scrubb averred:
But in PS/SS, Harry returned to Privet Drive after his shopping trip
to Diagon Alley with Hagrid.  Chapter Six (Canadian pb ed., p. 67)
starts:
"Harry's last month with the Dursleys wasn't fun."  That summer,
the only time Harry wasn't with the Dursleys was from "early the
next morning" (PS, Canadian pb ed., p. 49) until he returned by rail
to Little Whinging.  [The movie of course condenses all that and 
shows Harry leaving King's Cross the same day he got all of his 
supplies; the more I think about movies, the more I wonder how the
later ones can possibly make up for the plot gaffes present in the
first two...after all, school starts on Sept. 1, the prophecy says
"born as the seventh month dies."  But I digress...]
 
So what summer was Harry's shortest at Privet?  Did the Weasleys 
spring him in COS on his birthday (as the movie shows; don't have 
the book at hand) or was it later?
Cheers,
Eustace_Scrubb