Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets vs. Sky High

Did you know that Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets and the 2005 teen superhero comedy film Sky High are the same story? Let me tell you why.


The son (Harry Potter/Will Stronghold) of a famous couple (James and Lily Potter/Steve and Josie Stronghold aka the Commander and Jetstream, respectively) with extraordinary powers (Harry is a wizard, as were his parents/Will is the son of two superheroes) attends a special school for those with similar abilities (Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry/Sky High). The school is divided into castes (students at Hogwarts are assigned to houses based on their personality traits/at Sky High, students are designated as heroes or sidekicks based on the nature of their powers), one of which consists primarily of bullies (Slytherin/Heroes) who antagonize the hero and his caste (Gryffindor/Hero Support) throughout the year. The hero's close friends and classmates include a bully magnet (Ron Weasley/Ethan Bank) and a smart girl (Hermione Granger/Layla Williams) who objects to the school's treatment of a demographic seen as socially inferior (Muggle-borns/Sidekicks), of which she is one. As the year progresses, the hero meets an older student (Tom Riddle/Gwen Grayson), whom he becomes close to (Riddle takes Harry back fifty years, during which time Hogwarts groundsman Rubeus Hagrid, then a student, was expelled when a Muggle-born student was killed by a monster from a subterranean chamber beneath Hogwarts known as the Chamber of Secrets/Gwen becomes a mentor to Will, who develops a crush on her). However, the older student is actually a presumed-deceased supervillain (Lord Voldemort/Royal Pain), who was hoisted by his/her own petard in a previous confrontation with the hero's parents (Voldemort murdered Harry's parents before trying to kill an infant Harry, only for his spell to rebound and destroy his body/Royal Pain's ultimate weapon, the Pacifier, exploded during a fight with the Commander and Jetstream, turning her into a baby). Using a malevolent artifact (Tom Riddle's Diary/the Pacifier), the villain takes the form of a senior student (Riddle's 16-year-old self is preserved in the diary/Royal Pain's henchman, Stitches, raised her until she became old enough to take revenge), and from an underground chamber (the Chamber of Secrets/the Secret Sanctum), sets in motion a plan to remove those he/she hates from the school (Riddle releases a monster known as a basilisk upon Hogwarts, which petrifies various Muggle-born students who saw its reflection/during the Homecoming Dance, Gwen uses the Pacifier to turn the students and staff of Sky High into babies with the intention of raising them as villains) for personal reasons (Riddle is the heir of Salazar Slytherin, one of the four founders of Hogwarts, who believed that only pure-bloods, aka wizards and witches with entirely magical families, should be allowed to study magic/Gwen was once a low-ranking student at Sky High, having been written off as a science geek since no one understood her technopathic powers in the 1980s). Members of the rival caste are in on the villain's plan (on Christmas Day, Harry and Ron impersonate their rival, Draco Malfoy's, sidekicks in an attempt to find out if he is the heir, which they learn he is not/Lash and Speed, a duo of bullies, and school cheerleader Penny Lent, help Gwen take over Sky High). Meanwhile, the hero is unsure of his place in the super-powered world (Harry asks the Sorting Hat if he belongs in Gryffindor, even though he shares some traits with Slytherin/Will, despite having two super-powered parents, does not possess any powers himself), and gets into a fight (Harry and Draco join a school club dedicated to duelling/Will accidentally bumps into Warren Peace, a student whose supervillain father was put away by the Commander, triggering a fight in the school cafeteria) with a rival student (Draco/Warren) whose father (Lucius Malfoy/Baron Battle) is not much better than him (Lucius, like his son, dislikes Muggle-borns and antagonizes Ron's family for their fascination with Muggles, aka ordinary people/Baron Battle is serving countless life sentences for undisclosed offences, and the rest of the school fear and resent Warren as a result). During the fight, the hero gains a new ability (Harry discovers that he can communicate with snakes via a language called Parseltongue/Will manifests superhuman strength, which his father has), causing his friends to associate him with the rival caste (the school believes Harry to be the heir, since Slytherin could also talk to snakes/Will is transferred to the Hero track, distancing him from his friends, especially Layla, who has had a crush on Will for a long time). At the climax, the villain smuggles his/her artifact into the school (Lucius slips the diary into Ron's sister, Ginny's, cauldron/Gwen becomes Will's girlfriend and tricks him into hosting a party at his house, where she seduces him into taking her to the Secret Sanctum and steals the Pacifier) and deceives someone close to the hero (Ginny Weasley/the Commander and Jetstream) as part of his/her plan (Riddle uses his diary to manipulate Ginny into reopening the Chamber/Gwen invites Will's parents to the dance to accept an award for Superhero of the Year), severely weakening them (Riddle takes Ginny into the Chamber and slowly drains her life/the Hero of the Year award is a trap, and Will's parents are turned into babies along with everyone else). When confronted by the hero, the villain reveals his/her identity (Riddle writes his full name and rearranges the letters into the anagram "I am Lord Voldemort"/Gwen gives a monologue to an age-regressed Commander, explaining that she was his former schoolmate and a victim of Sky High's caste system), and a standoff ensues (Hogwarts Headmaster Albus Dumbledore's pet phoenix, Fawkes, presents Harry with the Sword of Gryffindor from the Sorting Hat, and Riddle summons the basilisk/Will teams up with his friends, Warren, and school bus driver Ron Wilson to repair the school's anti-gravity device, which Royal Pain had sabotaged) in which the hero is badly beaten (Harry is injured by one of the basilisk's fangs/Gwen throws Will out the window of the school). However, the hero gains another new ability, which he uses to save the day (Fawkes blinds the basilisk long enough for Harry to decapitate it with the Sword of Gryffindor, which only a true Gryffindor can wield/Will discovers that he has his mother's powers of flight and uses both of his parents' powers to prevent the campus from falling on a civilian neighbourhood) before defeating the villain (Harry uses the basilisk fang to stab the diary, reviving Ginny/Will knocks Gwen out, and she is subsequently arrested along with her gang). In the end, the villain's victims are healed (the basilisk's victims are revived, including Hermione, who reunites with Harry and Ron/science teacher Professor Medulla is returned to his proper age, and he then reverse-engineers the Pacifier to return everyone else to their proper ages) and the hero and his friends are commended for their heroism (Harry and Ron receive awards for their service to Hogwarts/Will's parents thank the sidekicks and admit that they are heroes).



It's the same story!




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