how did sophie break the curse in howl's moving castle
Howl's Moving Castle Howl continues to avoid the Witch of the Waste until she lures Sophie into a trap; believing that the Witch has taken Howl's current love interest, Lily Angorian, captive, Sophie goes to save her and is in turn captured by the Witch of the Waste. Howl comes to save Sophie, unshaven and with his hair in a mess, proving his love for Sophie, and defeats and kills the Witch of the Waste. He reveals that Miss Angorian was actually the Witch's fire demon in disguise; the fire demon had, over the years, taken control of the Witch and was attempting to create a "perfect human" by fusing parts of Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin. It was to be completed by the addition of Howl's head. Howl and Sophie race back to the castle, but Miss Angorian is already there, and takes hold of Calcifer to capture Howl's heart. Howl had given his heart to Calcifer. This was the contract between them; the heart kept Calcifer alive, and in return Calcifer put his magic at Howl's disposal. Howl falls as if dead. Sophie uses her ability of bringing things to life by talking to them, first to make her stick beat Miss Angorian, then to free Calcifer and give him another thousand years of life, thus breaking the contract between him and Howl, and finally to push the black lump that Calcifer leaves behind into Howl's chest. With his heart restored, Howl awakens and destroys the witch's fire demon. This breaks the curse on Wizard Suliman and Prince Justin. Calcifer, as promised, breaks Sophie's spell and she returns to her proper age. Howl had realised early on that Sophie was under a spell and secretly attempted to remove the curse; when he had met with failure, he had come to the conclusion that Sophie simply enjoyed "being in disguise".