It's a reflective surface, it's not a magic mirror. There's really no way to make Ilya more attractive when he has Chukchi eyebrows and bone structure paired with white coloration. This is really the best he can hope for appearance-wise and he's a lot more concerned with how well he does on this test, quite frankly.

Well, it doesn't actually weigh that much by his ludicrous standards - since he was always expected to push 600lb mine carts three or four times a day, what should probably be a really hard test isn't that bad. He pushes against it with as much energy as he can - away from the Headmistress, thanks, he really likes her and doesn't want to hurt her - and it creaked loudly since it was embedded in the floor to a degree before, with a snap, breaking at the bottom and flying off clear across the room until it hit a wall.

The thud was fairly loud. Ilya immediately turned to her to start apologizing. "I am so, so sorry I broke that. I mean it. I didn't - I - I've never worked with that kind of material before - please, please don't throw me out?" It's more of an embarrassed plea than anything else, and all the self doubt pours in: stupid Chukchi, stupid brainless muscle, destructive idiot, better off in a gulag where he couldn't hurt anyone...

Oh, crap, did she hear any of that?