Yeah but like I said, it doesn't make sense. If you fear something, you want it gone. Take someone who's afraid of spiders, for example: they don't care what kind of spider is close to them, if it's venomous, lethal, has plans to attack them or whatever. They just want it gone, even if that means killing the spider. That's just how being afraid works, not with reasoning, acceptance and common sense.
And like I said before, it feels to me like you only made him capable of using magic because it's convenient for your character at the moment.