Cause and Effect, My Love

Chapter 3: Minus One

Hogwarts fell under a brief dilemma when its librarian, Miss Pince, requested an indeterminate sabbatical. She could no longer handle the stress of working beside people involved in the war with Voldemort. The situation hindered productivity and harmed her mental sanity. She thought it best to quit before things got out of hand. Despite the opposition from Deputy Headmistress Minerva McGonagall, Albus Dumbledore allowed Pince to leave. He found a candidate who could replace her, for the Matrix had a dissatisfied librarian of its own.

Argentina Cortez arrived in England a few days after Pince's departure. She had left her work base in America for reasons similar to Pince's. The war with the Resistance had grown to an uncomfortable level, and as a result one of her close associates had died. She believed the safety of all programs had been jeopardized. England would be a better location for them since Resistance activity was minimal and Voldemort's threat did not extend to programs. Cortez had no intention of continuing her work in England, her reasons being that there would be difficulty running a database as extensive as hers over a long distance. However she did not delay to apply to Hogwarts when she heard of the opening. She knew little about Hogwarts, enough to know that it provided extreme protection for its staff and student body. She was unaware that Hogwarts was a breeding ground of Resistance activity--neither did Dumbledore know that she was a program aligned with the Matrix. Cortez showed no visible signs of threat; Dumbledore had to trust her. There were no other candidates available. She was hired soon after her first interview.

As Hogwarts librarian Cortez was cordial and helpful when approached, yet kept distant and generally did not initiate conversations. Students liked her despite this, mostly because she was more lenient than their previous librarian. She kept the library in order and made it so that browsing was far easier than it had been in their entire academic careers. The library was under a spell of efficiency none could replicate. Through all this Cortez remained aloof, neither threatening humans nor welcoming them. She desired the company of her associate more than any protection Hogwarts could offer.

~*~

Trinity found no compensation for loneliness in her students, who found her curriculum complicated and unorthodox. She placed an unprecedented emphasis on physical maneuvers as means of defense against the Dark Arts, procedures that the students themselves found difficult to perform. It appeared to them that she was making her course challenging so all would fail--especially Harry Potter. Nothing that Harry did pleased her. She pushed him the hardest and grew more frustrated with him during every class.

It was natural that Harry would come to suspect her of being a follower of Voldemort. He had been observing her with caution, noticing things that made him distrustful of her. Her first class started on the wrong note: a lecture on the Unforgivable Curses (three illegal spells used often by Voldemort and his followers), stating that she had the fullest intention to use them in class. The teacher who had done this before had been a Death Eater. Trinity had a close relationship with Severus Snape, a man who Harry knew for a fact to be a Death Eater, and whom he still suspected to have ulterior motives despite cooperation with Dumbledore. He suspected Snape and Trinity's close bond to be a result of a common foundation in Voldemort.

His friends did not accept his theory on Trinity as they had before. Hermione Granger in particular listed many reasons why Trinity could not be a Death Eater--and all of them dealt with her support of Muggle culture. She wore Muggle clothes and often suggested that in certain situations the best combat methods were Muggle combat methods. Unlike Snape she was not biased towards Slytherin, one of Hogwart's four dormitory-like "houses" (the others being Hufflepuff, Ravenclaw, and Gryffindor), and the house associated with all "Dark" wizards. She had a particular affection for the house of Hufflepuff, usually ignored and ridiculed among the rest of the four houses.

That being considered Trinity still had a "dark" air about her. She did not have a warm personality and had a low tolerance for insolent behavior. She seemed to be hiding something or someone. Some students believed that, if she were not a dark witch, she must have been a criminal. Her clothing supported this theory. She wore what was standard for her: tight clothes made entirely of black polyvinyl chloride with a long coat and heeled boots. She also had begun to wear gloves because of the cold. However, Dumbledore, concerned that her clothing was a distraction, convinced her to change into less diverting clothing. She complied and started to wear more conservative clothing made of fabrics other than PVC and leather. She continued wearing the same coat outside.

Trinity had other social failings outside of Hogwarts. Her decision to join the Hogwarts staff for a year was widely disputed by the Council. Their objection based itself on her prominent role in the Resistance as a skilled fighter and a high-ranking fleet officer. Though the Nebachadnezzar had Neo, he and Morpheus alone were not sufficient to undertake the ship's tasks without Trinity. Her technical skill in machinery and hacking surpassed those of her shipmates. Trinity, acknowledging their concerns, said she would be available to do the same tasks at Hogwarts, though she would not be available to do them as a mobile soldier. She could continue to work on her non-combative duties with more interrupted time and safety at Hogwarts. Reluctantly, the Council conceded to let her stay at Hogwarts Base for six months during the school year. This minor dispute bothered her little.

The last month before she would begin teaching presented a new problem: Neo. It was her misfortune to have helped find him so soon before September first, and now, having found whom she then thought her true love, was forced to tell him they would not share the same ship for six months. This very reason gave her the most trouble. She held fast her desire to teach, but success seemed meaningless now that the One had been found. The war would be over soon if the prophecy was true. She wanted to fight beside him and bring an end to the war, which she could not do teaching at a school inside the Matrix. But she had a doubt over her love for Neo that few knew or suspected. A sudden separation would leave no time for her to discover if she truly loved him or the concept of the One.

As expected, Neo did not receive the news positively. He hated the concept and used such reasoning as was his to dissuade her from teaching. The job was too dangerous, he would say. Any job inside the Matrix possessed a danger of discovery by Agents. The supposed security Hogwarts provided against Agents did not guarantee her safety. Her profile was too prominent. She would be known; there was no telling whom she could trust to keep her identity secret. The only good solution he saw to Trinity's problem was himself: If she insisted on going to Hogwarts, he would go with her. His argument was passionate and almost convinced Trinity to quit; but Trinity had reasons to persist in teaching that not even Neo could debase.