Disclaimer~ I don't own Howl's Moving Castle, nor could i ever think of it. This is a fiction all character's whose's names and personalities that are mentioned in the story belong to the creator of this wonderful story! Rights belong to Diana Wynne Jones and Hayao Miyazaki!

A/N~ So it will mostly be book based, but there will be a few things i will use from the movie!

R&R

Chapter 1~ 999 years later

Sophie Hatter sat under the only weeping willow tree on the campus of her high school. She was a senior, her two younger sisters, Lettie a junior and Martha a sophomore, were the popular ones of the three sisters. Sophie was the invisible one, she stayed quiet and out of the way of the jocks and popular crowd at Ingary High. Thus why Sophie was sitting under a tree reading a book during her lunch break.

She could hear the cheerful laughter of the popular crowd led by none other than the infamous Howl Jenkins. From what her sisters had told her he was the best looking boy in the whole school, well Lettie said that, Martha was dating Howl's young cousin Michael and only had eyes for him. Lettie gushed on how Howl was a heart breaker, and had dated almost every girl in school. Lettie also told her sisters that she had refused his offer to take her out because she preferred to be friends with the notorious play boy.

Sophie sighed, the laughs were getting louder, which meant they were getting closer to her secret spot. With half the semester over already through, Sophie figured she could handle their idiocy for that much longer till graduation. She stood up and dusted off her skirt, then she picked up her bag, effortlessly slipping the book inside. She started to march off away from the group and back to the main building of the school.

"Sophie!"

Sophie stopped with a grimace, she turned around to see her sisters waving at her from the group. With a sigh Sophie trudged over to the group.

"What is it?" she asked her two sisters.

"Could you tell Fanny that we won't be home till late?" Lettie asked, holding her hands out in front of her in a prayer like way. Lettie was wearing fitting jeans and a low cut top with a stylish jacket over it.

"Why don't you two call her yourselves?" asked the eldest of the three.

"Well you know how Mother gets about us going out Sophie! And unless you agree to go out with us Mother will throw a fit!" Martha argued back, she was wearing a pleated back skirt that was much shorter than Sophie's own long ankle length one, and a cute v-neck tee.

"What time would you two be getting back at?" Sophie asked, trying to decide if she would help her sisters or not, because Fanny honestly was to hard on them when it came to going out and having fun.

"Oh, no later than seven! Oh please Sophie!" Martha begged.

Sophie rolled her eyes, "Fine, but only because I know I can waste my time till seven. Text Fanny that I will be going with you. Just remember to meet me at the coffee shop next to the book store at seven o'clock, if I'm not there come look for me at the book store." With that Sophie turned to leave, but not before she was assaulted by her sisters in a type of bear hug. 'Thank you's were throw about and Sophie just laughed, "Your both welcome! Now let me go so I can leave!"

The two let go, but not before giving their older sister a final solid squeeze. The let Sophie go on her way, but now their sister had a small smile placed on her face.

"She's your sister?" Howl asked Lettie as she and Martha came back over to the group.

"Yes, why do you ask Howl?" Lettie replied, following the man's line of gaze that lingered on her sister.

"I don't ever recall seeing her before," Howl replied his gaze never leaving the retreating figure of Sophie Hatter.

"She's great at keeping invisible and out of range of pesky boys like you Howl Jenkins!" Lettie said, jabbing Howl in the shoulder with her finger.

Howl's gaze turned towards Lettie as he lost sight of her sister, he was rubbing the now sore spot from the especially hard jab, "Are you trying to tell me something Lettie dear?"

"Yes I am, stay away from my sister Howl, for your own good. She will rip you to shreds, she hates men like you and will not hesitate to mane that lovely face of yours." Lettie replied patting Howl on the cheek, she could see he wasn't listening and that the poor fool would have to learn the hard way that messing with Sophie Hatter was the worst mistake he could ever make.

All the while no one noticed the blue-green sort of flame hovering nearby, that shot off in the direction Sophie had gone after watching the group for a bit.

~DBH~

Sophie browsed through the isles at the book store, she was looking in the older books section of the store to look for books she hadn't read yet. The owners of the store were very found of Sophie, more so when she did odd jobs for them for a book or two.

At the edge of her vision Sophie saw a flash of blue-green and turned to see what was there. A book, just simply a book, no one was there just a book. Sophie picked up the book and looked at the title, "Howl's Moving Castle, hope this Howl person isn't like the Howl at school…" Sophie said as she took the book with her to her favorite corner of the store to read in.

Sophie put down the book and stared at the rows of books around her, why was it that this one book described her perfectly as well as had her name in it. Not just her name either, the main character Sophie had two younger sisters by the names of Lettie and Martha, and Sophie's step-mother Fanny as well, this book was starting to get to weird. Oh did she mention the fact that it also contained Howl and Michael from school? This book was insane and not to mention creepy, and for some reason Sophie still couldn't stop herself from reading the book, it captivated her mind on how accurate the descriptions of her and the people she knew were. It terrified her but at the same time intrigued her as well.

"Howl's Moving Castle already you can't stop thinking about me can you?"

Sophie jumped from the voice of the speaker, she turned to see Howl Jenkins standing next to her looking at the book in her hands.

"Hardly, something about the book drew my attention, besides the Howl in this book is much more of a gentleman than you." Sophie retorted, she was lying, the character was spot on for this Howl.

Howl's smile grew, "Don't lie now Sophie, a friend of mine has read that book and told me how the character was exactly like myself."

Sophie blushed, embarrassed at being caught in her lie, "Humph, well I guess I was right as well then, he really is an annoying character. And like I said the book mearly caught my eye."

Howl still smiled but before he could say anything one of the owners spoke up from the counter, "Sophie dear, it's time we closed up."

"Oh, sorry Mrs. Garth, I'll bring my stuff up to you in a second." She called up to the elderly woman. "Now if you'll kindly get out of my way." Sophie told the blond man standing in her path.

"Allow me to escort you to the coffee shop you promised to meet your sisters at." Howl said, holding out his arm in a very gentlemanly offering.

Sophie looked at the arm and ignored it, she wasn't usually so rude but she felt no need to be kind to Playboy Howl. She pushed past him and went straight up to Mrs. Garth. Sophie set her books on the counter and pulled her wallet out of her bag.

"Such a nice young man you've got yourself Sophie, I see Howl come in all the time." Mrs. Garth said as she rang up all the books.

"He comes here often?" Sophie asked, perplexed that Howl even knew how to read.

"Yes, him and his cousin, they are always buying books on magic and the like. If I remember correctly Michael bought this book for Howl on his birthday that recently passed." Mrs. Garth pointed to Howl's Moving Castle as she spoke. "They are both such charming boys, but with such a silly hobby don't you think dear?"

Sophie nodded, her brain processing the new information she had just received about Howl. She glanced over to where he was standing near the door waiting for her, why hadn't she noticed him come in before. But of course Sophie wouldn't recall ever noticing anyone when she was in the back reading a book she had found that day.

"Have a nice evening Mrs. Garth," Sophie said before heading to the door and the handsome man next to it.

Once Sophie reached the door the tell tale jingle of a text message rang out from Sophie's phone. With a sigh she pulled it out and flipped it open. Sophie can't make it going straight home, Sorry! Love Lettie and Martha read the message. Sophie gave an exasperated sigh and rubbed her brows, what was Sophie to do? Walk home? Out of the question Fanny would surely kill her. The only other option Sophie saw was asking Howl for a ride home, and that was the last thing she wanted to do, but at the moment it looked like that was her only choice.

"What is it?" Howl asked as he held open the door for her.

"Apparently my dear sisters aren't coming to pick me up…" Sophie sighed, "May I bother you for a-"

"But of course! I remember the way to your house because of picking up Lettie, we live fairly close by. I'm parked behind the store, less competition to get a parking spot." Howl held out his arm again to Sophie, who this time reluctantly took the offered arm.

Howl lead Sophie down the ally that separated the stores from the back exit parking spots.

"HOWL! SOPHIE!" came a loud yell as something blue-green streaked down from the sky towards the pair.

Both jumped and looked wide eyed at the flaming face floating in front of them, it had a thin blue face and green flames that seemed to be hair and possibly eyebrows that were above orange flames and a purple flame mouth, it was a creature that could give small children nightmares and older people's hearts to skip a beat.

"I'm so glad I found you two together for once! And alone as well! It's been fifty years since I last saw you guys and you died again! But I am I glad to see you two together and not so far apart like last time!" The creature spoke to them as if it knew them.

It was Sophie who regained her voice first, slightly irritating Howl a bit, "Who…What are you?"

"Oh…that's right, I always forget you two never remember who I am…I'm Calcifer, a fire demon." Calcifer looked at the pair waiting for their replies.

"Oh, so the book…" Sophie said weakly.

"Oh! I found a great author and told her all about you two! She wrote about it and turned it into a book, it was a serious helper to getting you two believing in it all before!" Calcifer smiled at them, a look of happiness on the demon's face. "I got lucky that Michael already bought Howl the book, I just needed you to read it Sophie, and you have! Well enough of it at least!"

Howl finally found his voice, "So you're saying that the book is real and the events that took place really happened?"

"Yep, but I'm worried, you all have never been reborn all together like this. Even the Witch of the Waste has been reborn here and is living in this town as well. I feel like it is the last curse of the Wizard Alexander." Calcifer replied.

"Wizard Alexander? There was no Alexander mention in the book when I read it, if I recall correctly Howl and Sophie get a happy ever after…" Howl questioned.

"Well you really did, Alexander was a Wizard that came from the other side of the Waste, a powerful one at that, it took you, Sophie, Michael, and Suliman to get rid of him. Before he died he uttered one last curse upon the world. I don't exactly remember how the curse went but it pretty much said that said that when everyone was reborn together he would get his revenge and come back from the grave. He'll use everything in his power to get back at you guys, I have to figure out a way to restore all your memories before it's to late, which it just might be…" Calcifer groaned out the last part as he looked around them, there were these black goo-like creatures that were pouring off the walls and forming into man shaped things.

"I should have guessed Alexander would have restored the Witch of the Waste's memories, using her against you guys is a smart way to go about it. Howl get you and Sophie away from here as fast as possible as soon as I cut open a pathway for you guys, I'll try and get rid of them as best as I can."

"Calcifer what are you-" Howl started to say but was cut off as there was a blinding flash of flame that cleared a pathway to where Howl's car was parked.

"GO NOW!" Calcifer yelled.

A/N~ Hope you enjoyed the first chapter! Obviously added in only a few Oc's, but they are necessary for the story. Personally i don't feel i did to great on Calcifer but i figure he would be happy to see them again! Even if it has only been 50 years since he saw their last reincarnation of them!
Any guesses about why it's call 999 years? i give 'cookies' to anyone who can tell me! XD Oh and another thing Sophie is 17 and Howl is 18, Micheal 15 and so is Martha, Lettie is 16.

Any questions or suggestions about the story please comment on! Oh and review! It makes the evil lawn gnomes happy!

3
~DBH~