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Source: https://writers.stackexchange.com/a/37305
License name: CC BY-SA 3.0
License URL: https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

From the description you've given, I don't think your book is really all that similar to Harry Potter. Sure, they have some elements in common, but you have a lot of differences as well. However I want to point this out to anyone else who has a similar "Is my writing too similar to X?" question.

**Please** don't change your story just because you think it sounds like something that already exists. When you are writing, you are putting your thoughts and feelings into the page and creating something completely original. Unless you are intentionally plagiarizing someone else's work, your writing will always be unique to you, no matter how many concepts it has in common with another work.

Now, if you start calling the school in your story Hogwarts, or your character can cast "Avada Kedavra", or you have your characters meet Draco Malfoy in a dark alley, then... you probably should change those details, as now your writing is taking place in the Harry Potter universe, which would be appropriate in a fan-fic but not in a published book, as [there could be legal repercussions to using other author's characters and places if they come from a book written since 1923 like Harry Potter.](http://www.scriptmag.com/features/primetime-can-i-legally-write-a-story-based-on-another-writers-character)

However if you have a school for witchcraft and wizardry with a caring headmaster, or if you have a villain who was thought to be dead, or if the students participate in a tournament with other schools, or if the main character has a family member who was falsely imprisoned and escapes, or if your characters eat chocolate to feel better, or if the two best friends of the main character fall in love, or if prophecies are taken down and kept in some place...

All of these and more are elements used in Harry Potter, nevertheless you can make a completely original story, and if it happens to include any or all of the preceding concepts, that's wonderful! You've written your story, and you have a lot of interesting concepts to present to the reader in your own way. You won't end up writing another Harry Potter, you will have written your own story. So again: Please don't change your story just because you think it sounds like something that already exists. Your writing is yours alone, and the way you tell your story will be unique.

Original score: 2