Author's Note
I felt this deserved a quick explanation. Hi, I'm here because I saw the movie Howl's Moving Castle, loved it, when out and bought the book the next evening read the entire thing and got this question stuck in my head: How did Howl get to Ingary? This fanfiction is based off the book and will attempt to answer that question.
Please excuse and help me if I get a few details wrong, I've only had time to read the book once.
Disclaimer: I do not own any of these characters, the world they inhabit, or anything else having to do with Howl's Moving Castle by Diana Wynne Jones
Where All Past Years Are
Prologue
Spending time in Wales hadn't done much to ease the unnerving feeling Sophie got whenever Howl dragged her there. But it had considerably increased her opinion of Megan.
True, she still thought the women rather unable to shut up and a bit unnecessarily harsh on Howl, but she was a wonderful mother and had an uncanny ability of knowing exactly when Howl was trying to sneak Mari out for ice cream. Sophie had tried the stuff they called 'ice cream' and besides it being unnaturally cold Sophie found it quite delicious and could almost understand why Howl would start mischief making over it.
One visit Megan had a large book situated on her lap and motioned Sophie over to look at it while Howl picked up a giggling Mari.
The book was filled with incredibly life-like portraits of a small boy with raven black hair.
"They're Howell's baby pictures." Megan explained. "I want to get started on Mari's baby book, so I thought I'd get a few ideas from Howell's."
Sophie was half listening to her, being more interested in the pictures of the two year old wizard in the bathtub and seemingly enjoying it very much. Some things apparently never changed.
"What are you doing?" Howl came over and craned his neck at such an angle that he could see what was in the book, or as much as possible with Mari on his shoulders. Alarms had apparently started going off since Megan hadn't immediately swooped down upon him with a lecture.
Sophie was going over another photograph of the same boy looking awkward in a maroon and plain school uniform.
"I was just showing Sophie some of your old pictures." Megan defended herself.
"And why on earth would you do something like that?" Howl demanded, almost comically incredulous.
"Come now Howell, bring Sophie home is the only thing you've ever done to prove you're not completely a lost cause!"
Sophie blushed a bit and pretended to be absorbed in the picture of ten year old Howl dressed up formally and posing stonily with his sister, who was wearing a long black gown and an odd square hat. Megan somehow made it sound like they were getting married or something. And they weren't...yet. And yes Howl had kissed her a few times since promising her happily ever after, and yes sometimes she couldn't help but think that Howl would be a wonderful father from the way he got on with Mari, and maybe once or twice she'd had the odd thought of what their children would look like or what her wedding dress would look like before squashing them flat, but that wasn't the same as a ring, was it?
Megan and Howl had started squabbling about Howl's state of lost-causeness, which was odd, because they were basically in complete agreement. Mari had climbed down from her uncle's shoulders to settle herself in Sophie's lap and trace her finger along the picture of Howl looking quietly happy and charming and holding a piece of paper that said something with the letters 'Ph.D.' in bold. It was one of the last pictures, which Sophie thought rather odd, because Howl didn't look much older than Martha in the picture. But it was fully possible she was wrong, Sophie conceded, since Howl didn't look much different now.
"Enough!" Howl finally declared. "Let's go out for supper."
Mari cheered. Sophie's reaction was significantly more subdued, hoping she wouldn't have to get in Howl's 'car' thing again.
"But Gareth should be home soon." Megan protested.
"It's nearly nine o'clock." Howl responded matter-of-factly in the same way he always did when the facts finally suited what he wanted, or when he had made the facts to suit what he wanted. "If he wanted supper, he should have come home sooner, hmm? He can make his own meal."
Megan scowled as Howl directed Mari to go tell Neil.
"You're welcome to come with us." Howl managed graciously to Megan as he offered a hand to Sophie, who was tactfully avoiding the sibling conflict.
Megan huffed and went to get her jacket as the children came thundering down the stairs. Howl winked at Sophie and led her to the front of the house from which the small party departed.
The album lay open on the coffee table behind them to the pictures of a dark haired Welsh boy who had never really been normal until Gareth returned home three quarters of an hour later and spilled beer across the pages.