1. Why does the origin (0, 0) always remain invariant under the action of a transformation matrix?

This is because when any 2 X 2 matrix is multiplied by  the result will be unchanged.

e.g. 

2. What happens when two transformations are carried out, one after the other?

If the first transaction is represented by the matrix A and the second transformation is represented by the matrix B, then the combined transformation is given by the matrix product BA, in that order.

i.e. BA means transformation A is done first followed by transformation B.