Chronicles of Chrestomanci, Volume 1: Charmed Life / The Lives of Christopher Chant Book

I read an article a few years back -- wish I could remember which publication; hopefully they've gone under -- which claimed that Diana Wynne Jones plagiarized Harry Potter for Charmed Life. As I recall, the accusation was largely based on these facts:
(i) Harry Potter and Cat Chant are both young, male, British wizards who also happen to be orphans (and the reviewer inaccurately claimed that Cat wore glasses).
(ii) Harry and Cat are both taken to a place to learn magic.
(iii) What, you need more evidence of plagiarism than that?!
They also leveled their accusing pen at Neil Gaiman for daring to write The Books of Magic, featuring a young, British, bespectacled boy learning about magic.
Needless to say, Diana Wynne Jones has been writing excellent -- and ORIGINAL -- novels since before J.K. Rowling was alive (and so has Gaiman). But if this poorly-researched article led just one Harry Potter fan to discover the strange and beautiful world of Diana Wynne Jones, then I suppose it wasn't entirely a waste of space.
Nothing against Rowling, BTW -- I'm just not a fan of myopic Potter fanatics who consider Harry Potter the be-all and end-all of fantasy.