The Web Wizard

Tara woke the next morning as Heidi did her morning nose kiss ritual. Looking at the clock, she saw it was 5 AM. She groaned. This time difference was tough to get used to. It would be 1 PM back home. She tried to go back to sleep but it wasn't happening. With a groan, she got up, and turned on the lamp at her desk. Gotta get my computers networked, she told herself.

The problem was, as Dumbledore had to explain to her, there was so much magic in the air, it took them quite a while to figure out how to shield the components to make computers even work at Hogwarts'. So special precautions had to be made including lining the cases with a special metallic component, and special shielded cables had to be created. Luckily, there was a group of wizards who had created the technology to handle computers, so they would, indeed work at Hogwarts. It was just an obstacle. Tara had been assured that while she was touring the grounds on her first day, they had sent in the wizards to fix her computers she had brought with her so they would work.

An hour later, she had everything up and running and was retrieving 167 e-mail messages. Sheesh! Be away from e-mail for a few days and look what happens. She had an e-mail from Dumbledore that he had apparently written the night before, requesting that she get their domain registered so they could all get proper e-mail accounts. She was impressed that he knew how to word that, but she had noticed him reading an Internet for Dummies book at the feast.

The clock struck 7 and Tara took to the shower to get herself ready for breakfast. She managed to find her way to the hall all by herself this time. Minerva looked pleased when she saw her and bade her good morning, as several of the other faculty members did. Rubeus Hagrid came up beside her and Tara was surprised at how far up she had to look to see him.

"I made it on time this morning," he told her.

"I've been up since 5. Still on the States' time," she said, and sat down in her assigned seat. As soon as everyone had shown up, Albus spoke about the students' arrival the next day and this was the final day of preparation. When asked if there were any announcements, Tara raised her hand and was asked to stand.

"I've registered the domain, so I can set up e-mail boxes for anyone who needs them," she began, and a hush fell over the room, and several faculty members exchanged looks of confusion.

"I'm afraid a lot of us aren't very good at the terminology or concept," Albus commented, "perhaps you can give us a brief introduction?"

"Um, sure. Well in our muggle world, we have these things called computers, and I think you all know what those are; I've seen quite a few around here, particularly in the library. I understand we have them in all of the dorms too, and part of my duty today is to make sure they are all up on the Internet. E-mail is electronic post; much like your owl post but it doesn't involve owls. You read your mail on the screen. Does everyone understand that much?"

Several nods answered her question.

"Okay, well if you want to be able to communicate via electronic mail, you need an e-mail address; where to find you. Perhaps I should do a demo later today. Is that possible?" she asked, looking to Albus, who nodded.

"Okay well come see me and we'll set it up. Since Albus is your resident e-mail expert, I think he and I ought to demonstrate it for you this afternoon, if that's possible."

They set up a demonstration for later that day, in which Albus would send Tara e-mail from his office and she would receive it in her room. One group was in Albus's office while the other in Tara's quarters and all gasped when the messages began going back and forth. But Tara had a surprise. She had taught Albus about the wonders of Instant Messaging, and had installed a commonly used Instant Message client on his computer for him.

"Suppose I want to talk to Albus in real time?"

"Then you'd go to see him, right?" Madame Hooch asked.

"Well, I could, but there's another way. If he's online, I can tell. Look at this." Tara popped up a window that listed names, and saw Albus listed as online, and explained how she knew. She also saw that her mother was online, and at that moment, a message popped up from her mother. Tara's audience gasped.

"What's that?" Hagrid asked.

"That's my mom, back in the United States."

They were in awe; Tara knew she had them in the palm of her hand. She began conversing with her mother, and then a message popped up from Albus. Everyone was amazed. Two hours later, Tara felt like she was the magical one, not the muggle in the group. They all thanked her and those who hadn't expressed an interest in a computer now had done a 180.

Tara now had to check the dorms. She was almost finished; she only had the Slytherin house to finish up. She got in with her password, and entered. There were 6 computers in the main room; 3 were Macintosh and 3 were PCs. She fired up the router, and hooked them up to the T1 connection. That was great that they could have a T1 for everyone. She had brought a CD of some classic rock and put it on one of the computers and turned it up while she worked. All of the software was stored on the server she had set up in her quarters, so she grabbed it off the group drive and started installing everything. She was singing at the top of her lungs, staring at a status bar, then felt something. She turned around to see Severus Snape standing in the doorway. She immediately shut up and turned down the music.

"I'm sorry, did I disturb you or wake you up or something?" she asked. He shook his head.

"I just wondered when these -- these -- things would be hooked up," he said waving his hand at the computers.

"They're hooked up, talking to the network, and I'm just about done with the software installs," she said, ejecting her CD from the machine she was playing music on.

"Wasn't that a band from over here?" he asked inquisitively.

"Yep. Led Zeppelin to be exact. The Rain Song is one of my favorites," she said and saw that the software had finished. She then went onto her server to assign a UNIX login for the Slytherin house, her hands flying over the keys. Snape was impressed at her speed. Then she was finished, and turned in her swivel chair, and stood up.

"All done. Anything you want me to show you while I'm here?" she asked him. Might as well be nice and helpful, she figured. Showing them the wonders of the computer world had been a lot of fun and she felt lighthearted.

"No, not right now. Oh wait, there is something. I think I want a computer in the dungeon. Can it be done?"

"Is there a jack down there?" she asked. He looked at her, not understanding.

"A what?" he asked tipping his head. Tara leaned over and pointed to the T1 jack in the wall.

"It's where you plug the cat 5 in to connect to the network. If there's one already installed, no problem. If there isn't, I guess you'll have to call your guys who put these in and have them put in another, then erase their memories again."

"Is it something you could do?"

"Well, I could, but stashing wires is tough around here since the walls are stone. Let me take a look, I've got some time," she offered, and picked up her tool bag which contained her tools and laptop.

"Follow me," Snape said cooly and turned on his heel. She followed him into an adjacent area where the classrooms were and down to a dimly lit dungeon. Cauldrons steamed, and there were bottles in racks of objects and substances she knew better than to ask about.

"Where were you thinking of putting a computer?" she asked. He pointed to a desk of sorts. She opened up her toolbox and took out a small flashlight, and crawled underneath. No T1 jack. Shit.

"Well, I'm afraid there isn't one. Is there one in the room anywhere?"

"I think so. They wired all of the classrooms for that, but it just isn't in the right place. Is this it over here?"

He had walked across the room now. She crawled out and identified it as the T1 jack. She plugged in her laptop to make sure it was active, and sure enough she could ping the network and the outside world.

"I don't suppose there's a computer store in the neighborhood," Tara joked. Severus's expression didn't change, he just looked straight into her eyes and shook his head.

"I'll talk to Professor Dumbledore then. See what we can conjure up...no pun intended." She couldn't resist needling him just a little bit, even though they were being civil. She gathered up her things.

"When do you plan on getting a computer?" she asked.

"As soon as I can. It'll be tough for the owls to carry but we'll manage."

"I have an idea," she said, as the obvious came to her, "why not mail someone who is arriving here tomorrow on the train to bring computers and supplies?"

For once, his expression brightened and Tara was sure he might crack a smile. He almost did.

"I'll get right on that, with Professor Dumbledore. Will you come with me so I can intelligently tell him what we need?"

"Of course," she said, and they went to Professor Dumbledore's office. Tara felt strange, and a little bit lightheaded. Her knees were doing that jello thing again and she did not know why, and her stomach felt like it was full of hummingbirds and butterflies, all flitting about. And it was so warm!

"Is it always this hot this time of year?" she asked as Severus stopped in front of Dumbledore's closed office door.

"Hot?" Snape asked, looking bewildered.

"Hell yes. I am absolutely sweltering!" she said, fanning herself. Severus smiled inwardly, seeing that Tara's face was indeed flushed and wondered why. She didn't look feverish, but he saw a light in her eyes which made him even more intrigued by her, if not, attracted to her. He brushed that thought away quickly and knocked on the door. The door swung open and they stepped into Dumbledore's office.

"Hello. What can I do for you two?" he asked them, and gestured for them to sit in two chairs before him.

"Miss Hall needs to order some equipment. She came up with the brilliant idea that it can come on the train tomorrow," Snape said. His words were very complimentary, but he still had a cold edge to his voice.

"Excellent. What do you need?"

"Well, I need one of these machines and a way to put it on my desk in the dungeon," Snape began, and looked to Tara for guidance. Dumbledore shuffled in his desk drawer and produced a quill and paper. Tara took the quill and looked at it, puzzled. Dumbledore pushed an ink bottle towards her. Tara put the quill down and said, "I'm not practiced at a quill and ink, no offense," she said, digging a conventional ballpoint pen out of her fanny pack. She wrote down parts that were needed for doing the network connection, then stopped before she started listing components for Snape's computer.

"PC or Mac?" she asked Snape.

"I'm sorry, what?" he asked, slowly and deliberately.

"There are two kinds of computer platforms. You might have noticed the differences - there are 3 of each in the Slytherin house."

"What's the difference?" he asked.

"Well, a Mac is much easier to use if you are a newbie. Albus here has a Mac."

"Newbie?" both Albus and Snape quipped.

Tara grinned. "Computer muggle..." Dumbledore broke into a grin and Snape cleared his throat, so as not to lose his composure.

"I think I can handle the more difficult variety," Snape said, looking at her, swallowing her in with his eyes. Tara felt her stomach doing the butterfly dance again and she swallowed hard and cleared her throat.

"Okay, we'll get you parts for a PC and I'll put it together for you," she said, "I like to stick away from brand name PCs, it's much better to build them myself."

"You're the expert," Snape told her with a wave of his hand, which enraged her. She wanted to say something, but didn't.

She finished up her list and handed it to Albus. "I hope you can read my scrawling, I tried to be neat," she said. He read the list off to her and it was fine. She rose from her seat, grabbing her tool bag.

"Oh Tara, are you coming with us this evening?" Albus asked.

"Coming with you? Who? Where?"

Snape shot a dark look at Albus. "It's all right, Severus. It'll help her become acquainted with the community. Now, tonight, being the last night without students here on the grounds, it has become somewhat of a tradition to go to a pub called The Three Broomsticks. I trust the potion to make us feel okay in the morning has been brewed, Severus?" Snape nodded and looked disdainfully at Tara.

"Does it work on muggles?" she asked.

Dumbledore looked to Snape expectantly. Snape made a face. "I suppose I can make a muggle version of this for our young muggle computer wizard," he said, with a degree of reluctance.

Dumbledore grinned and rubbed his hands together. "Good! We will be leaving shortly after dinner. We travel by floo powder usually, but so it doesn't wear you out, I'll arrange for you to ride with someone on a broom."

"On a broom?"

"There's nothing to it. It's much safer than muggle air travel. Just a bit chilly is all."

"So you might want to wear something beneath your robe," Snape said, slowly, with a hint of something in his voice that Tara couldn't put a finger on. She shivered, but it was a warm shiver, and fanned herself.

"It's so hot in here. All right, I'm going to go double check the Gryffandor computers and I think I'm finished for the day. See you both at dinner."

Dumbledore and Snape bade her a good afternoon, and she closed the door behind her.

"You two seem to be getting along a bit better," Albus mused. Snape scowled.

"She can be very trying," he commented.

"Yes, she can. But then, so can you!" Albus said, leaning forward. Snape rose.

"I'd better get back to the dungeon to make the muggle hangover antidote."

"Good afternoon, Severus."

"Good afternoon."

As Snape closed the door, Albus couldn't help but chuckle about the two of them. They were so opposite but they were so funny together. There was a tension between them and it was obvious to him and everyone around them what was going on. Obvious to everyone but Tara and Severus.

Chapter 6: The Night at the Pub