Read my heart, not my mind

8. Let Me Look at You

"Seriously though," Hoseok said with mixed reverence and astonishment as he held my returned essay about the transfiguration spell and read through it for the fifth time. He had already copied my notes from the rest of the lesson and now was trying to decipher the meaning behind what Professor Weasley said to those who still came up emptyhanded at the end of the first hour.

I was lying on my back in the middle of the open space, twisting my wand between my fingers as the sun streamed in weakly from outside. Only half the windows were open today as Hobi claimed he was too cold. It smelled closer to winter and I smiled with a little sadness as I realized that half of September had already passed.

"How did you figure this out so quickly?" He finished his sentence after several minutes of intense scribbling. I could feel his gaze on me so I kept my eyes pointed upward. "Even Namjoon couldn't figure it out before you did."

I smiled a little more broadly as a cloud shifted and a beam of sunlight shined brightly in my eyes, causing me to squint and nearly drop my wand. "It was like a mystery, a question that had no answer and therefore every answer." I spoke openly of that thrilling feeling I got when I opened my book to follow Professor Weasley's instructions. Then I laughed as I dropped my wand and quickly shied away from it before it smacked me cleanly on the nose.

"Namjoon is too literal." I said, thinking about why the smartest student in sixth year and resident genius struggled to understand more than I did. "The answer is both literal and bendy and he just can't always see the bendy parts."

Hoseok laughed and I heard as his quill went back to scratching across the parchment. "I don't even understand what that means." He admitted.

"The incantation is 'Obiacio Muto Vita'." I recited, carefully keeping my wand pointing at nothing and with no intent.

"It means turn something, an object, into life." Hoseok offered, reading from my essay.

"Right," I agreed as I laid back down and pulled my sweater under my head as a makeshift pillow. "So Namjoon was probably searching for something that exactly made a teacup into a gerbil, much like I was at first. Then I started to realize that there seemed to be almost an entire section devoted just to that phrase. It was simple after that."

"Did you get your teacup to turn into a gerbil?" He asked and I could feel his gaze boring into me so I just nodded. "I think I made mine have ears once... and a tail near the end of class."

"I think everyone got just a little bit afraid because Professor Weasley said we wouldn't be revisiting the spell. He put the pressure on, so to speak." I giggled at my little pun, comparing my fellow students to a teakettle. "Don't worry about it, Hobi. We'll make it work." I offered, happy in the knowledge that we literally had all day to devote to this spell if need be.

I finished my homework, as was tradition, on Friday night and he was done with his reviews and notetaking and even Quidditch didn't demand his attention this week. Besides, I was confident he would get it much more quickly than he thought. He was more talented by far than he gave himself credit.

As predicted, once I corrected his pronunciation and the hold he had on his wand, he turned the teacup easily into a gerbil. Reverting objects is a lot easier when they aren't living and moving things, so I had to handle that part. But after the fifth time that the teacup zigged and popped, I could feel the radiance of Hoseok's confident smile.

"Sunbaenim, you are truly the best." He breathed, his chest tight with excitement.

"I think," I corrected him, fighting that smile that was so hard to resist while in his presence, "that I just understand how best to communicate my ideas. And you are a sponge ready and waiting to soak up the knowledge, Hoobae."