"Oh Howl, can't you do something?" Sophie asked, fanning herself with an old grimoire. She had seated herself in front of the unused hearth, resting her feet on the edge. Howl was by the kitchen, frantically flipping through pages and pages of textbooks and journals, some of which were his own.
"I'd like to, the trouble is I don't know where to start," he laughed back. Sophie dropped her makeshift fan to the ground which landed with a thud.
"Well what did you do last year, it was never this hot inside?"
"Don't get too close," Howl directed, putting one arm out, "You'll warm up my personal space."
Sophie crossed her arms, "Don't be ridiculous," she scolded, skimming through one of the books Howl had laid out. She went quiet for a minute, in utter disbelief. "This is all nonsense! How did you make it this far as a wizard? Totally illegible, no one could copy this even if they wanted to!"
Howl pulled a stool up and promptly took his place, theatrically closing the book closest to him. "Good," he declared, "I don't want people copying me."
Sophie took the seat nearest to her, giving up, "Howl, you can't even copy yourself, what did you do last year?"
Howl thought for a second before speaking. "I don't know, it had always maintained itself."
Sophie was tired of this conversation, "So it is reasonable to believe that it was actually Calcifer maintaining your spell, and none of your work whatsoever? Correct?"
"Yes," he sheepishly responded.
"What about you? I don't see you jotting down any spells, what If I wanted to recreate it?"
"Howl, you know it doesn't work like this, it's not exactly spell work, I'd love to see you try."
Howl picked up his wife's hand, rubbing it softly, "Yes, please remind me how I married the most powerful witch in existence."
At this, the door to the castle heaved open, and in stepped Michael and Martha. "Howl, why is it so hot in here?"
Howl leaped up from his stool, eager to greet his old apprentice, "Hello to you too," he grumbled, but it didn't last long before a huge smile sprung across his face.
"I see your acting is better," Martha commented.
"Likewise, what brings you two here?"
Lettie had taken up Sophie's old spot in the armchair by the hearth and began promptly removing her traveling jacket and shoes. Michael was too invested in the books thrown about to acknowledge the question. "What are these for?" he asked, pointing out something Howl had messily written.
"You'd have to guess, but we think it's the old spell of maintaining the castles temperature."
"Oh, that makes sense, in more ways than one, Howl never did any spells for that while I was here."
Howl waltzed over to opposite end of the bench, "Yes, but I did the first summer I spent here, which was, well, one could only guess."
Sophie and Michael rolled their eyes, they were for all intents and purposes, stuck.
"By the way, thanks for answering my question, I feel like everyone's ignoring me today," Howl chuckled.
"Howl. Martha and I were doing a bit of shopping today, and wanted to know if you wanted to come."
At the mention of her name Martha shot up, "Yes, we should make a move," she chimed, but was generally forgotten about in her corner.
"Sophie, can I ask why you haven't done anything?" Howl joked, but when her eyes met his, he cowered back down.
"If I could I would, but nothing's working."
"Maybe it's just too hot for magic to work? I'll help fix it." Michael declared.
Sophie moved over to where Martha was sitting, "Why don't we head out, and leave them too it, my guess is they'll be occupied all day."
As if to prove a point, Howl and Michael had moved closer to each other, hunched over the same book which they were arguing about what one word came to be.
"Agreed. Let's go."
Michael and Howl had been at it for hours, and by the time Sophie and Martha had returned the castle was still hot.
"See, I told you so," Sophie gestured upon entering to the two boys still arguing over this one entry. If they had heard them, they didn't acknowledge it.
"Anyway," Sophie declared loudly, "You'll never guess what we found."
Michael had now turned his attention to them, watching Martha pull out this large object from the bag that they both carried.
"It's a motorized fan!" she gushed, "It's the latest craze."
"Sophie." Howl interjected, "You can't just fix magic with a bought object.
Sophie, Martha, and Michael ignored him, proceeding to set the small fan up. Howl stood with his arms crossed, ready to insult the foreign object more, but once it started he had nothing to say.
"Oh, I guess it could work for now," he finally declared.