This is fantastic! Bellatrix's POV is so well done, and the glimpse you give us of her psyche and how she sees her family and everything around her is fascinating and insightful. Just the right balance between twistedness that runs in the family/surroundings and personal cruelty (nature and nurture, as it were). I especially liked the scene in which you describe how laughter bubbles up inside her -- an intelligent counterpoint to the raving, hysterical maniac we see in the movies.
The chess metaphor works perfectly throughout, and the twist at the end is just right. And I'm just as impressed by your Severus. He's young and inexperienced, yet intelligent and, in the end, able to fend for himself -- as he would be, forever the pawn in other people's games and yet somehow managing to make it through the enemy lines.
The chess metaphor works perfectly throughout, and the twist at the end is just right. And I'm just as impressed by your Severus. He's young and inexperienced, yet intelligent and, in the end, able to fend for himself -- as he would be, forever the pawn in other people's games and yet somehow managing to make it through the enemy lines.
Great fic!