Initials PV Ember Jones Closed

Ember hurried up the narrow staircase, every breath puffing into the air in front of her face with a small white cloud, dissolving behind her as she ran. 
If she carried on like this, the young Ravenclaw thought with a smile, she was going to become an excellent sprinter. Running from the Great Hall to the highest point of the West Tower, where hundreds of owls flew in and out of the owlery every day, and back to her classroom every morning had already had effect on her strength. Maybe this had also been one of the reasons why this routine had slowly but surely turned into a habit even though she hardly ever discovered any letters addressed to her. 
In contrast to the silence of the stairs where the echoes of her feet hitting the wood had been the only sound, the world burst into an explosion of noise as she entered the owlery, a round room with cooing, hooting, squawking birds perched on almost every empty space. Ember slowly made her way through the chamber, eyeing the letters the owls were carrying with careful looks. She spotted names of her best friends, names of professors, names she couldn’t identify, but nowhere her own.
And then she spotted a girl.
The youngster wondered why she hadn’t seen her before; a human in a flock of owls should not be that easy to miss. She carefully surveyed the student. A Slytherin, judging from her attire, especially the serpent crest on her robes. She had apparently not noticed Ember yet, stood with her back to the Ravenclaw and was softly singing to herself. She tried hard to distinguish the words. “Love is my religion, but he was my faith...” It sounded interesting, Ember thought and pondered if she meant anyone in particular with "he", but then she noticed something that ended all nice thoughts about the girl. The letter in her hand. Starched and yellow parchment, the vintage kind lots of wizards seemed to use, a name on it in slanting handwriting. E Jones. An initial and last name Ember immediately recognized as hers. “What are you doing with that envelope?” she enquired, eyeing the Slytherin with cold stare. “I think that’s mine.” Then, she hesitated. What if that was a mistake? She could be a little self-centred at times, a trait that had not allowed her to think of the possibility that there could be another E Jones at Hogwarts. After all, Jones was a quite common name, same as the initial E. And Ember never got letters… She quickly backed off. “Um, I’m sorry… maybe it is yours. What’s your name? Shall we open it to find out which one of us it belongs to?” The girl widened her lips in what she hoped was a friendly, apologizing smile. “Sorry I got a bit het up right now, I can’t stand it when people are taking my stuff… but if we’re both called that, it’s an easy mistake to make. Maybe I even made the mistake…” She trailed off, cursing herself. Ember always talked too much when she was nervous. What if she had scared the girl away now?

“I’m Elena Jones, I wasn’t sure if the letter was meant for me so I thought I’d wait and see if anyone else came to get it.” She laughed nervously, and looked at the letter, it probably belonged to the other girl, Elena would never have gotten letters anyway.

She held the letter out, “It’s probably better if you open it first, I don’t really know anyone that would want to send me anything.”

She could empathise quite a bit with the girl, she had a little hoard of everything she had bought herself in her dorms and would not hesitate to yell at anyone that touched it, call it a side effect of not really having that much to begin with. She had closed down her information sale thread recently which made money a little bit tighter but had in the end made her feel free. Freedom was good, it made her feel as if she could fly, because if there was one thing Elena valued, it was the ability to think for herself. Free will.

“So, what’s your name? I’m guessing it starts with an E but I haven’t really seen you around before.” Elena tried to give the girl a smiled but ended up just looking a bit nervous.

Ember blushed as she heard that the girl hadn't even been planning to open the letter. Why on earth did she always have to be so quick-tempered when it came to situations like that? "Oh...", she said shyly, an apologetic expression in her eyes. "I'm sorry, I just thought..." The Ravenclaw trailed off, unsure what she had even wanted to say. 
Suddenly the Slytherin who had introduced herself as Elena stuck out her hand. Ember jumped a little at the sudden movement, then quickly stiffened to hide her fright - for goodness' sake, her new acquaintance was just trying to give a letter to her, not attempting to punch her or something. "It's probably better if you open it first, I don't really know anyone that would want to send me anything." Ember took the letter, smiling gratefully, even managing a small laugh that echoed in the room amongst the hoots and squawks of the many owls. "Thank you!", she grinned, finally finding into the part of herself that wasn't extremely shy. "To be honest, I'm not sure who would write to me either - except for my mum, but her last letter only came two days ago, so I suppose that can't be it. She has a different handwriting anyway." She curiously twirled the envelope in her hands, looking for clues that might lead to the one who had sent it, but there was no information written on the yellowish parchment otherwise than the name E. Jones, Hogwarts in a slanting, untidy handwriting Ember couldn't recognise. She dug into the envelope with one fingernail, half tearing it open, before she turned around to Elena and asked her: "Do you know that writing by any chance? I haven't seen it before..." The short "text", if it could be called a text, was already half torn, but Ember hoped the other girl could still identify it. 

Elena shrugged, "Maybe she forgot to write something in her last letter."

She looked at the handwriting and her eyes widened, "That hand writing, I do think I know it, I don't know why they'd ever send me anything though."

Elena took the letter from Ember and started to make sense of the squiggly writing:

Hello Traitor,
I would say I hope this finds you in good health, but that would be lying, because I honestly hope your little magic school 'friends' have hexed you by now. You should have shown your true colours by now, I tried to raise you into a loyal, kind, and amazing young woman, but it's obvious you're still the scared selfish little girl you've always been. You hurt everyone around you, you're toxic and I feel sorry for any idiotic child that decides you're good enough to be their friend. We both know that you're an emotionally anorexic failure.
Yakin

Elena's eyes filled with tears and her breathing became shallow. Her legs gave way and she slid down to the ground, dropping the letter in the process. A thousand thoughts swirled around her head, a voice that sounded suspiciously like Bella's telling her not to believe it, that Elena was good inside, and that she had done the right thing. Another voice that sounded like Aurelia telling her that everything in the letter was true, that she was evil and toxic and another failure just like she'd always feared.

The blue-haired girl curled up in a ball and choked out a sob, before bursting into tears. She buried her head in arms, refusing to look up again.