Disclaimer: I do not own Harry Potter(unfortunately), most characters belong to JK Rowling

Chapter 1

~Third person pov~

Harry sighed; it was currently the summer holidays, and his previous year at Hogwarts left him scarred and exhausted - physically, emotionally and mentally. Not like this hasn't happened before, but Sirius's death hit him harder than everything else. Sirius... his godfather and his fathers most faithful friend, Harry's only link to a 'normal' family.

The memories of his dead godfather plagued his mind; Harry blamed himself for his godfather's death, if only he had listened to Snape in his occlumency lessons then he wouldn't be in this situation.

He had no time to grieve over his loss, other then wrecking up thousands of galleons of worth antique furniture in Professor Dumbledore's office. As soon as his death occurred, Harry got whisked away to the infirmary to heal the scratches and cuts he had from the battle, nothing as severe as his friends; he blamed their injuries on himself as well, only if he didn't jump to conclusions, but it wasn't his fault Professor Dumbledore had to go to a important 'meeting' at the time.

His thoughts broke at the sound of footsteps outside his door.

"Get up you freak! My Diddykins needs his second breakfast," Aunt Petunia exclaimed as she picked up a shoe, in an attempt to hit it with Harry before he got up. Fortunately, Harry predicted this beforehand and jumped up to to avoid the size 10 shoe. Harry rapidly shot out of the room and dashed to the kitchen, where Dudley sat.

"Gimme my food, you freak!"demanded his incredibly overweight the matter of minutes, Harry whipped up a plate of eggs, toast, sausage, bacon, beans, mushrooms and cereal. As soon as he put the foods the dining table, Dudley grabbed a piece of toast and shoved it down his gob.

"Hopefully, this will keep Dudley occupied before he reminds Aunt Petunia of my chores," thought Harry, as he tried to escape the kitchen, but unluckily for him, his Aunt Petunia stood at the door with her hands on her hips.

"Oh, you not going anywhere until you finish your chores," said Aunt Petunia, as she pushed a piece of paper into his hands. "I expect this to be finished at noon, or else no food for the rest of the day!"

Harry glanced at the list; it said:

. Do Laundry

. Wash the dishes

. Vacuum the whole house

. Make Lunch

. Pull out the weeds- the front and back garden

. Clean the kitchen

. Wash the dog

. Take it out for a walk and clean its business

Harry groaned under his breath, this was going to be hell of a long day...

Harry ticked off the last thing on his chores list and sighed in relief. His back ached from working so hard and quickly, but it had been worth it as there was an hour left until noon; Harry used this opportunity wisely, to do chores for his neighbors to earn some money, encase he needed it in the future. He didn't make the same mistake twice, which was letting his guard down and accidentally letting Dudley catch him painting the fence next door; this led to no food for the next day and his hard earned cash was given to Dudley to buy some sweets, not like he needed the calories, unlike Harry who was just skin and bones.

Harry trudged up the road to Mrs Figg's house and knocked the door; it wasn't until a few minutes later he heard the sounds of locks clicking and a stampede of cats emerged from it. By the time Harry finished brushing off the cat hair, he saw the squib appear from inside the house.

"Harry!"called out Arabella Figg just as she gave him a look of concern. "Have the Dursleys been feeding you? You look horribly thin and pale! You must come in and have a bite to eat!"

"I'm fine, thanks, Mrs Figg... although I am a bit peckish," answered Harry whilst he was lead to the living Harry, peckish was an understatement, he was downright starving; the Dursleys didn't give him anything to eat throughout the day, and to add to that they let him starve yesterday because he failed to finish his chores. Before Hogwarts, Harry could go for a week without food, but now he couldn't even contain his hunger for a couple of days. It was probably due to the fact at Hogwarts he could have an endless supply of food, and whenever he felt like he was hungry Harry could just go down to the kitchens to grab a snack, whereas living at Privet Drive he had to salvage any morsel he had.

"Of course, Harry," responded Mrs Figg."A growing boy needs to eat, and I mean that quite literally in your case, just look at how short you are for your age! I've told Professor Dumbledore countless times that the Dursleys don't feed you enough, but he reassures me that that they do! How prosperous!"

"Yes Mrs Figg,"Harry answered politely. Even he complained to Professor Dumbledore about his bad living conditions, but he replied that Harry was just exaggerating and that he should stop talking about how horrible his living conditions were because it was a bad trait; no one wanted a-less-than-perfect "Boy Who Lived".

As Harry sat down on the couch, Mrs Figg offered him a plate of digestive biscuits, which he gratefully accepted; when she was't looking, he slipped a couple of the chocolate biscuits into his pocket, encase the Dusleys 'forget' to feed him later. While he devoured his biscuit, the squib poured him a cup of tea and handed it to Harry. Parched, he brang the cup to his mouth, but suddenly a blurred figure knocked it out of his hands.

"Katsu!" exclaimed Mrs Figg." Naughty cat!Look what you did to poor Harry!"

Harry took no notice of the blazing tea burning his scald; he was mesmerized by the felines found opposite himself was a gorgeous autumn-coloured cat which had a dozen shades red, orange and brown, massive in size. What stood out for him the most was the large intelligent eyes, far too wise to be a cats. Harry shook himself out of his daydream, and quickly reached out for a paper towel to soak up what was left of the tea.

"I'm so sorry, Harry!" apologized Arabella Figg."This is one of my new cats, Katsu, but I haven't taught him any manners yet. Naughty cat!"

"It's okay," Harry said to Mrs Figg."I best be going now to change into some dry clothes, goodbye."

"Bye Harry," she said as she handed Harry a ten pound note."This is for visiting me, it gets lonely here even with my cats for company."

"Thanks!" replied Harry as he received the money. He shut the door behind him, and hugged the note to his chest.

"At least one good thing happened today," thought Harry as he heard a familiar sound of a car engine park at the garage of 4 Privet Drive, it seemed that his Uncle Vernon arrived home early; Harry arrived just in the nick of time. As he walked back to the house, Harry couldn't help but think of a pair of peculiar hazel cat eyes.

Hello guys, this is my first chapter to Harry Potter: Manipulation. I want this to be based on Dumbledore's manipulation of everyone around him to get what he wants, because everyone sees Dumbledore as a wise, good character, so I wanted to change that. Also, I want Slytherins to be good in this story because in the original story, JK Rowling portrays them as 'bad' people; which I think is unfair because whenever I ask someone which house they are in, and they say something about how no one wants to be in Slytherin cause that's where all the evil people are from.(I'm ranting now, I'll stop).

To add to that, I'm new to fanfiction so I had to watch the same youtube video 10 times just to post this chapter! I usually use wattpad- you can find this same story at: 870575510-hp-ff-manipulation-about-the-story - but I wanted to post my story here as well. This is my first HP story, so don't hesitate to point out mistakes!

Thanks for reading! Please review!