Reflected In the Mirror, I'm A Maze

You Make Me Cry, Hold My Hand

"Oh, you must be Felix! Hi!"

The freckled boy looked up from his notes to find an older girl cladded in the Ravenclaw colors sauntering over to his table with an eager grin. He offered her a somewhat nervous smile in return, which only seemed to make her own widen as she took the seat in front of him.

"I'm Sana! It's really nice to meet you, Felix!"

"It's nice to meet you too," he answered, shaking her hand. "Thank you for taking the time to help me. I don't want to call myself a lost cause, but—"

"No, no, no, none of that downer attitude," she cut, flicking his nose. "I want to be here, okay? I get to help out a cutie 1st year and I get tutoring credentials for it – so don't go thinking for a second that I'm forced to be here or that you're wasting my time, alright?"

A tad taken aback, Felix's nervousness then started slowly melting away, and he offered a small no in answer. It was a bit startling, how she'd so easily read him like an open book, but he couldn't deny he felt much more at ease now that his primary worries had been addressed.

"Alright, so I've been told you had difficulties with the practical, was it?" asked Sana, pulling out a notebook. "In all subjects?"

Felix flushed a bit, lowering his eyes. "Y- yeah, pretty much."

"Well, that's fine. I have the opposite problem – I have the practical down, but I suck at memorizing the theory, so tutoring you out will definitely help me out with that," she chuckled. "It's good that you sought out support so early, too. All the more time for you to really get the hang of it! Now, what would you like to start with?"

"Hmm... Probably Charms?"

"Good, Charms it is. Let's get started!"

.

Sana was a 6th year, and she was incredibly nice. Her cheerful personality gave him the energy to make it through the two hours of tutoring they had together and, even though he didn't exactly show any sort of improvement, she'd congratulated him for his efforts and assured him that as long as he kept a good attitude, then things would work themselves out.

There was no denying that having someone outside of his usual circle supporting him was rather gratifying and, even though he hadn't succeeded in casting a single spell, he didn't feel as down as he usually would – he simply couldn't, not with the way Sana kept on encouraging him.

As such, he was in a good mood when he finally returned to the 1st years' dorm.

Unfortunately, that wasn't meant to last.

"Hey, the Can't-Spell is back."

"Heard he went to get extra lessons."

"It's barely been a month! Man, poor guy's a lost cause already."

"He'd be better off settling for a muggle lifestyle."

Felix's good mood went down in a matter of seconds as he quickly crossed the common area and tried his best to tune out the hushed whispers, to no avail. They obviously didn't intend for him to hear them talking, but he'd always had fairly good hearing – though, in that moment, he wondered if he wouldn't have been better off deaf. The tears were threatening to fall by the time he made it to his room. He thought the others would still be occupied with their respective clubs, so he was surprised to find Jeongin inside, but it was too late – he was already crying.

"Lix? What happened? What's wrong!?"

All Felix could do was sob and, at a loss as to what to do, Jeongin simply pulled him into his arms to let him cry it out while hugging him tightly.