Disclaimer: I don't own Howl's moving castle, maybe one day...:)

A/n: Hello there! this chapetr is a little longer, i want to finish it for the reviewers but i can't. i started so many things haha. Anyway, i'm starting school very soon so hopefully i'll squeeze in anothe chappie before i take those long breaks from fanfiction. But don't fear i will finish this story!

SHOUT OUTS!

Helikesitheymikey : Thank you so much for reviewing all my chappies, now I look forward to them, they make me laugh. I've also used your 'talking inanimate things into life' power. That was a fantastic suggestion. Oh and bits of your reviews as titles for my chappies. Thanks!

Ferret Love : Thankyou, I'll keep revealing bits and pieces of Howl, I can't reveal too much though, but I think you'll like the ending.

Aliope: Thankyou for lending me your name! I'll give you a hint, all the characters are connected. (Huge smile).

Lisa: Thankyou, Howl's under Sulliman's wing again. Don't worry, it doesn't make him a loser.

Icekitsune4ever: Thankyou, I hope you enjoyed chapters 4 and 5!

Dark-Hotaru-Tomoe : Thankyou, I took your advice.

Masked-inside-out: I was hoping to use your name asap, but there's so much story to be told, I think it'll be in chap 7. Thanks for your review.

Yourmaster : I updated J Thanks for the review!

Speckled eggs: I love your nick, I have plans for that one. Thankyou for reviewing!

Sophie watched as the arrow above the elevator doors ascended. Sighing she fingered the new ring Howl had given her in replacement of the one that had dissolved, the ring that lead her back home.

"Here you are madam." The staff escorted her into the room, "Over here madam, is one kitchen, one dining room," he walked over by the window, "one lounge room, over there Redbrick Pier," he ducked over the left of the entrance, "and most importantly, one bedroom and one bathroom," he handed her the key card, "oh and before I do embarrassingly forget," he handed her a basket, "your free milk, teabags and champagne." He did all this so calculated that he surely had worked at the hotel for quite some time. As he closed the door, he ducked his head back in, "and your free mints are on top of the pillows, enjoy your stay!"

She walked into her bedroom, noticing her luggage was already there. "It's so peaceful" she said staring at the peer, the view was spectacular. She looked inside for her handbag, she was always to cautious to carry that around with her. She drew the blinds and left the apartment.

"Good morning Madam Sulliman, you're looking well" a booming voice sounded.

"As do you Mr. Remington," They were guided into a little antique tearoom. It smelt of scented candles and the air seemed thicker than usual. "Is it too warm in here?"

"No, not at all, I like a good fire." They were served fine finger foods and hot beverages from a cart wheeled in by the clone boys. "Call me Harry if you wish."

"You still drink coffee with a hint of bourbon don't you Harry," she made a little chuckle, "quite the strong drinker if I remember."

"Hahahaha," he boomed. "Sure do," he said patting his stomach, "I'm trying to lose a bit of weight, you see, my son doesn't like it much, says it's embarrassing." He was a man of dignity in the business world, the youngest man ever to own an entire car corporation and now at the age of fifty or so, becoming a father had made him somewhat softer.

Madam Sulliman watched as he used his sausage like fingers to pick up a delicacy and then attempt to take a nibble out of it without letting it get to his greying moustache. "I see, young Cody keeping you on your toes."

"Hahahaha, he sure is, that little boy is going to grow up strong like me and fathers before me." He took a sip of coffee, "What is it that you wanted Sulliman? It's been almost ten years since our last meeting."

"Eight to be exact." She replied. "Let us get to the point shall we?" She placed her saucer down, "Cody, he is Howl's cousin is he not?"

"Howl? That son of a gun! Still working for you? Fantastic! I knew that boy was going to get somewhere."

"Yes, quite a tale there, however that is a tale for next time." She looked at portraits of the royalty she worked for. "Howl is having some family predicament and it is distracting him from his studies with me."

"Oh yes, he finally got a girlfriend, what's her name, So-so-sophia? No Sophie!" he started chuckling. Pretty, that one is." Madam Sulliman continued.

"I was hoping that you would let Cody stay with me for a month or two, let him study with Howl." She looked at Harry as if expecting an instant reply.

"Hahahha, Howl? By gosh that's a great idea!" he bellowed.

"What I really mean is, to make Cody Howls knew subject, a subject of concentration."

"It's already a full house let alone squeeze Cody in."

"Not at all, full castle maybe, but recently there has been trouble, Howl has too much time on his hands, he is too arrogant to make further studies at home, hence teaching Cody a thing or two about magic will benefit the both of them."

"But Cody doesn't know a thing about magic."

"And Howl doesn't know a thing about responsibility." She used a more aggressive tone, and then quickly calmed down. "And at Cody's young age he should be trying his hand at as many apprentices as opportunity offers."

"Hahaha, fine with me, that's great, two wizards in the family."

"I've invited Cody for breakfast." A page boy came in a wheeled her out of the tea room and into a large dining room. Another escorted Harry, they echoed into another room. As Harry walked in his eyes widened, sure he was rich, but this was something else. The ceiling appeared to be ten metres above them, with the longest white curtains anyone has ever seen, and over those were drawn back blue curtains just as long. The table was long enough to fit thirty people on one length. The seats were crystal in appearance with white cushions, and all the cutlery was either silver gold or crystal.

"Very bright in here, isn't it boy?"

The page boy nodded and replied, "The white resembles morning, Madam wishes for only natural light to enter this room." He said, pulling out a chair.

"Oh hahaha, very clever indeed." She was seated at the furthest end from Harry, then a thin, pale, sickly boy walked in. His strawberry blonde hair wrapped his head like a starfish unable to let go. His expression and posture were fit to be a weary royal.

"Cody, m'boy."

"Hello father, what is all the fuss about me arriving? I have an extremely important television program to watch." The page boy lead him to his seat, it was in the centre of the table, between Harry and Sulliman.

"Cody greet your host!" Harry demanded in a held-back anger, looking from Cody to Sulliman.

"Good morning Madam Sulliman, thankyou for inviting me for breakfast." He said barely moving his lips or looking at her.

"Cody, it's been a while, I'm surprised you haven't forgotten my name."

"How could I? You gave me the most ridiculous toy when I was four. What was I meant to do with a yacht?" She smiled and waved for a page boy.

"Bring in the food."

The curtains were drawn, the flowers were malnourished and the bleeping was muffled. Her bed was last from the entrance. She was much more comfortable in this room rather than the moving one. Although there was no fire, an electric blanket was provided. The lady wearing white had just woken her up and told her there was a visitor. Seconds later a young man about the age of fifteen walked in. He was wearing a blue cloak, and moved cautiously.

"Who's there?" Said a weak fragile voice. She sensed something was wrong.

"Hello Anne, remember me?" He sat down on a chair at the corner of the curtain walled cubicle. "I always hated you, you took her away from me, and now she's gone. You were once a strong witch and now, you've lost all your powers and all you do is get sick. She spends all her spare time looking after you, she has no time to watch me grow!"

He stood up. Anne realised who it was, fear swallowed her eyes. "Help!" She gasped and tried fumbling for the remote.

"Don't be silly grandma, I'm not going to kill you, but you will die eventually." He walked up to the drip bag that was connected to her arm. "You've done great, followed my plans perfectly, and now I will get away clean as the day Sophie walked in." He poked a hole in the bag with a needle, and then squeezed a drop of translucent, thick liquid from a tube. "You know what this is?" He rubbed it on top of the hole. He snickered, "Gotta love hospital gloves. When the lady comes to feed you breakfast, she'll have to touch this bag, and when she squeezes it slightly, the poison in this hole will blend with the contents of this bag. He pulled down this hood, "look at what you've done to me, no matter though, I think I rather like it. Goodbye Anne." With that he walked out as quietly as he walked in.

Howl lay in the grass until it was time for lunch. The creatures tried to take him away for eating, but he wasn't a corpse, so they left him alone. Meanwhile, Sophie was making her way in the new kingdom to the new shop. The village was almost five hundred kilometres away from Kingsbury.

"Excuse me, but could you point me in the direction of the mask shop?" Sophie asked, leaning to a woman selling groceries.

"Sure hun, you mean Highland? It's straight up and the first corner building, it's the Victorian cottage. A grey one."

"Thankyou very much." She sped of in the direction the lady indicated. She heard whispers around her as she trudged up the hill. This was a new environment for her, although she should be used to travelling to places.

"Sophie Hatter aren't you?" Sophie made a sharp turn. A girl about Sophie's age asked. She was of middle class wealth, she could tell only because of her manners. But otherwise she looked of upper-class.

"Who are you?" Sophie asked hoping she wasn't a gossiper.

"I'm Ivy Peri Livingston." Sophie noticed a faint French accent. "Nice to meet you." She held out her hand to greet her. "Forgive me if I was rude. But I heard you are dating the Prince. Prince Justin? So I had to see this girl myself." Sophie gave a fake smile. She was a gossiper. "I'm not a prying type of person, I dislike gossiping, it's just that Prince Justin's return to this country was great news to us, and I heard he'd been chasing a girl for two years, and finally! Here she is!" She flashed out her hands at Sophie as if she was a prize.

Sophie smiled again, "Sorry, but I'm not dating the Prince and I'm really late now, I'll see you later." Sophie blushed as she speed-walked, finally reached the shop. It appeared to be an old vintage cottage with vines growing around it. The sign that read Highland was also covered in dark vines. The framing of the shop also looked familiar to that of a German home.

She walked in, noticing the bell atop of the door. "Good evening miss." A jolly man came out from behind the counter. "Miss Sophie?" He said with a wide grin. "Glad to have finally met you." He shook her hand with might. "When I heard the girl our Prince had been pursuing after was coming to our land, I hoped you would work with us. Lucky!" The interior of the house was very antique, it resembled a church and also had lead-light windows. The counter was on the top level as two 3-step stairs lead way to the costumes and props. "I also heard you were a fine designer, you're a florist, I heard your flowers are of rarity and last longer then any other. And you sometimes personally deliver?"

"Yes, I do my best." She walked down the right steps that lead to the costumes, "These are beautiful, and all hand woven, this must've taken you forever." She traced the lining with her fingers.

"Well, I do have one helper, my daughter I-" He was cut off by the door bell.

"Father, she's here!" Said a voice with bursting glee.

"Ivy Livingston," the owner continued. Ivy stopped at the counter and blushed when she saw Sophie turn around from marvelling the costumes. Sophie smiled.

"Shall we start again?" Sophie said, "I'm Sophie Hatter, nice to meet you Ivy Livingston and Mr. Livingston."

"The names Francis dear." He said, and looked at the girls suspiciously.

"Oh father, we've met, I think I scared her and she sped off as I was getting to the point." After she said that, the burst into laughter.

"It's great to have you aboard Miss Sophie." Francis said.

"Howl!" Calcifer breathed. "There's someone upstairs, said he was a relative, and he's very hungry too!"

"What are you talking about Calcifer and where's Markl?" Howl had tucked his shirt in his pants to cover the blood, and was heading upstairs for a bath.

"That's the thing, said he went out to by some food, and hasn't come back yet."

"And you let this stranger in?" He said smoothly and handsomely.

"Yeah, he said he was a relative of yours, and you would be delighted to see him." He said picking up a block of wood.

"Relative?"

"Yeah, and where were you? Sophie's not here to take care of the house anymore remember?" Suddenly Howl stopped moving and fell to the floor, he clutched his heart.

"Don't say that name, not now, not until I win!"

"What is wrong with you?" Calcifer asked carelessly "And who are you winning against, Sulliman?"

"Don't worry, I'm going to take a bath." He got up straight away and walked upstairs.

"What about the stranger or relative or whatever? He left you a note, it's in your room on the study table."

A/n: Thanks for the reviews!

B.T.