"May I sit here?"

She looked up, a little bit surprised that it was a boy older than her. "You may," she said, gesturing to the seat in front of her.

The boy smiled appreciatively at her, brought in his trunk to the train compartment and sat across her.

"I'm Cedric Diggory. May I know your name, Miss?" he introduced himself before he offered his hand.

Ellie didn't think that there were still boys who were this polite ― too polite, in fact, after she witnessed how messy a boy can be through Dudley, the cousin she had tried so hard to get along with, but so far her efforts were futile.

Waving off her depressed musing, she gingerly shook his hand, "Eleanor Potter."

A surprised gasp came from the boy's lips, but he covered up by quickly saying, "A pleasure, Miss Potter."

"Please. Call me Ellie."

The boy stared intently at her and then smiled good-naturedly, "Well, then," the boy cleared his throat, "call me Cedric."

She nodded.

"Um, so," the boy fidgeted in his place, "are you a first-year?" At her nod, the boy tilted his head and said, "I'm starting my third year. Excuse my words, but you're oddly calm for a first-year."

Ellie took it as a compliment and hesitantly said, "Thank you. You're very kind."

Cedric grinned, "You're welcome."

For a few minutes, only the sound of the train was heard. Although, Ellie was aware that the boy in front of her was scrutinizing her the entire time they were silent.

"I'm sorry if this came out as weird, but," Cedric gazed to his left, probably nervous or not sure of himself, "do you know the word 'chakra'?"

"Chakra..." she tried the word. It was a foreign word to her tongue, yet to her brain, it was so, so familiar. "It sounds familiar," she told, yet not understanding why.

"Really?" the boy exclaimed. Out of the blue, he uttered, "Ima no Konoha no osa wa Sandaime Hokage. Sono na wa, Sarutobi Hiruzen."

Ellie felt that the time was frozen. "Wait, I know that language," she mutedly uttered.

"Translate it," the boy urged her.

"The current leader of the Leaf is the Third Fire Shadow. His name is Hiruzen Sarutobi," she translated it into English, only to grimace after she did so.

The weird boy ― Cedric ― shoot her a wide smile. "Well, that is too literal for my taste, but superb, nonetheless."

She tilted her head, frowning at him.

"Hi no Ishi," he smirked at her like he was expecting her to know it.

Ellie's eyes widened considerably as she translated the sentence in her head. It was almost automatic, even.

"The Will of Fire."

Note: I'm not a native speaker. Pardon me for any mistakes that I've made in this chapter.