AN: This is a proof of concept, a way to gauge interest, so if you enjoy this, and want more, follow, favorite or review to let me know. I have many ideas for additional chapters that will follow on to this if there is interest.

The year 1996 was a memorable one for most of the Hogwarts students.

They would often look back and reminisce on the events that had unfolded that year.

The happenings of the year were often, told, and retold by parents, to friends, children and grandchildren, the already wild stories taking on even more craziness in the retelling.

And to think, it all started during the summer holidays.

And as all best stories do…

These stories were about Harry Potter….

Harry had just walked into the house behind his Uncle and cousin Dudley, his head hanging low, and his mood even lower. He was so lost in his morbid thoughts of the future, he didn't even notice the odd looks his Cousin was giving him as he slowly made his way past them and up to his room, dragging his trunk along behind him.

He hadn't been sitting in his room long, before the strangeness first started.

"Knock, knock" Dudley said as he stuck his head slowly around the door.

"I know we haven't always gotten on well," Dudley quietly said, easily ignoring Harry snort and complete look of bafflement.

"And I know I haven't ever been nice to you, but I know that you saved my life last summer. Those Dementoids were going to kill me and you saved me. Even though you almost got expelled."

Harry just sat there absolutely frozen, his face must have shown his absolute confusion, as Dudley seemed to get even more nervous at the staring.

"Anyway, I just wanted to say thanks." And with that, Dudley made a run for it, closing the door behind him.

It took Harry another 10 minutes of staring at the wall, and running the words through his mind to determine if he had heard what he thought he heard, before he realized that he did in fact hear, what he thought he had heard.

And that didn't help his bafflement at all.

But in hindsight, that was 10 minutes where he was not thinking of prophesies, or deathly futures… So that was the start to the oddest summer in Harrys life.

It was only the next day, as Harry lay on his bed brooding, that his bafflement increased another level.

"Knock, knock" Dudley said as he popped his head around Harrys door.

"Did you want to come play some PlayStation with me? I got some new games that are two players"

Harry rotated his head sideways, so he was looking at Dudley's face instead of the ceiling. He heard the words, and his mind processed them. Slowly he thought of the appropriate response, and delivered a cracking,

"Huh"

Which to be fair, seemed to be a fairly good description of what was going through his mind at the moment.

"Come one, I'll show you. It's school holidays, you can't stay here and be boring" and with that Harry was easily pulled to his feet by the arms, and dragged next door to Dudley's room, where they spent the next 5 hours playing, Mortal Kombat, Tomb Raider and various other popular games of the time.

It took getting his arse kicked three times in Mortal Kombat and being ridiculed by his cousin before Harry's brain re-engaged at the odd turn of events and he started trying to fight back.

What started out as an odd day, turned into an odd week, where Harry and Dudley spent hours playing PlayStation, while Aunt Petunia who seemed just as confused, but thankfully quiet, brought Dudley and Harry health snacks (Dudley was still on a strict eating plan for his boxing).

This sort of odd friendship then turned into Harry and Dudley catching the local bus now and then to catch a movie at the cinema. They naturally chatted a little while doing all these things together, and a passing comment by Harry of how he needed to be drunk before talking about his broodiness, led to the night everyone changed for the teens.

It started with Dudley sneaking a bottle of his father's Jameson whiskey into his room, where he and Harry spent the night browsing through various images of scantily clad woman in various forms of dress, or undress, while shooting down shots of whiskey out of paper cups. After sufficiently drinking, and coughing up of whiskey, topics turned to Harrys school, where he slowly over the course of the night and half a bottle of whiskey, he told Dudley everything he had experienced at school, starting right from the first year up until his Godfather dying and the death sentence hanging over his head due to the prophesy and Voldemort.

It didn't take much for Dudley to believe every word, considering how much they had to drink, and of course the moving illustrations in Harrys school books also helped.

This led to a rough morning for the teens.

It also led to a new routine. Dudley had decided that he would be helping Harry with his mission any way he could.

There might have been some bloody handshakes and half-forgotten drunken oaths about kicking Voldes arse involved, but those memories were a bit blurry.

This new routine started with Dudley showing Harry how to throw a punch. This was the start of numerous blue eyes, bloody noses and bouts of nausea. Fortunately, they discovered that somehow, any damage Harry seemed to go to bed with, seemed to heal overnight.

It was only after a week of this that they discovered Dobby, popping in at night and healing Harry as he slept.

This promptly led to the teens inviting the house elf to join them. Dobby was particularly scandalized at the scantily clad woman, however, a half a paper cup of Jameson's seemed to do the trick in relaxing those particular inhibitions.

The Summer went pretty much from that to worse… Depending on who was telling the story.

It was a slightly tanned, slightly more built teen with a hint of tattoo peeking out the bottom of his long sleeve shirt sleeves that arrived on platform 9 ¾ with his cousin Dudley. They were walking and laughing as they walked towards the barrier.

"…So you have to send me an owl and tell me how it goes."

"I will send you an owl tonight as soon as I get settled in. And you can let me know how it goes with Emma when you get to school." Harry replied and he high fived Dudley as they gave each other conspiratory smiles.

They arrived at the barrier, gave each other a quick manly hug, along with the requisite back slaps and Harry made his way through the Barrier with a large grin on his face.

He immediately spotted Hermione standing aside with the Weasleys as he approached the train. He also noticed the moment Hermione spotted him, because she immediately took off like a horse off the line, and slammed into him with a crushing hug, which he gladly returned as he swung her around, her legs lifting as he used the turn to keep his balance.

"Hey Hermione, its good…"

"Harry, how are you? Are you ok? Why didn't you write. Why didn't you come to the Weasleys. Where did you get a tan? Are you swinging me around? I'm sorry about Siriu… Mmmfffm…"

And her litany of questions were cut off as Harry promptly kissed her into silence. It seemed as if the whole platform went quiet at the sight. But they may have been Hermione's imagination.

Harry slowly returned Hermione to her feet and release her lips, and took a slight step back to give her some space. His large grin never giving way.

"That's disgusting, did you see what the Mudblood and Blood Tr…" *WHAM*, Malfoy promptly shut his mouth, rolled his eyes back into his head and fell into a heap, as Harry slowly turned back to face Hermione, after delivering what was a very effective silencing manoeuvre with his fist to Malfoys Jaw.

"Hey Hermione" Harry said cheerfully, grin still on his face.

Hermione looked truly baffled at the turn of events and had just opened her mouth when there was a sudden pop of apparition a few meters away from Harry.

"HARRY POTTER! TIME TO DIE! AVADA KEDAVRA!" The materialized form of Voldemort shouted as he took aim at Harry, the green light leaving his wand.

Harry used his quick reflexes, trained up by quidditch, and boxing the summer with his cousin to respond.

"EXPELIARMUS!" He shouted as he lowered his body and twisted so he could aim back.

The two spells, green and red collided in mid-air and started to turn a golden hue, just like it did before in the graveyard. This seemed to be what Voldemort was expecting, as he immediately pulled out a second wand.

"You don't think I haven't learned from our encounters Harry, my boy. I have learned my lesson, and this ends now! AVADA KEDA-"

BANG, BANG, BANG.

"I have too, learned my lessons well Tom." Harry said as he glanced between the Wand in his one hand and the smoking revolver in the other.

The screaming that had started up as soon as Voldemort became visible, stopped with such a suddenness it was as if someone had flipped a switch.

Harry slowly walked towards the fallen Dark Lord, Wand at his side, revolver still at the ready.

"Har-ry Pot-t-ter, H-h-how mu-"

BANG, BANG, BANG,

The Dark Lord stopped speaking as the last three bullets hit him in the chest. Blood now pouring out all over the platform, as Voldemort's body started to disintegrate right before everyone's eyes.

"Right, let's go to school then!" Harry said cheerfully as he picked up his trunk and took a skipping jump over the remains of the most feared dark lord as he hopped onto the step and entered the train, giving a wink to what could only be a new first year girl, causing her to blush bright red.

And was only the start to what would go down in the history books as a wild year, that no one would forget.

AN: So this is not the story I wanted to write, but to get to that I had to start with this.

So if this seems interesting and you're keen for more, let me know with a review, follow or favourite.

The story I want to write to add to this will include, parasailing headmasters, drunk Scottish teachers, pranks on Hufflepuffs and wild shenanigans as Harry lives his best life and makes up for lost time…