I’m a HP fan to the extent that my sister could quiz me for a week on holiday once and I couldn’t only answer her questions but give her context and which book it can from. Bit sad, I know.
I couldn’t rank the books, honestly. But
Philosopher’s Stone for a quick comfort read
Half-Blood Prince for being the first book to make me cry
Prisoner of Azkaban for the plot machinations (the timey-wimey stuff)
Order of the Phoenix for its accurate portrayal of teenage angst
Deathly Hallows because it tied almost everything up - love an internally coherent book series - and I love that she wasn’t afraid to make Dumbledore and Snape ambiguous but so human and heroic
Goblet of Fire because it just serves up so much incredibly fun reading
Not listed in order!
Films - I think I’m the only person on the planet to think this but I really disliked Prisoner of Azkaban. The first two were almost too faithful to the books but Prisoner of Azkaban darkened the mood too much and to people who haven’t read the books it didn’t make the complexity of the plot clear (my boyfriend who has not watched the films or read the books and is an Oxbridge maths grad had to have it explained).
By far my favourite film - Half-Blood Prince. Captures the darkness of Voldemort’s return to power while balancing it with the facets of teenage life, whimsy, romance and angst.
Special shout-out to the scene in Goblet of Fire when Harry returns with dead Cedric. “That’s my SON! That’s my BOY” never fails to break a bit of my heart.
Also shout out to the line in Order of the Phoenix “You’re the weak one, and you’ll never know love. I feel sorry for you.” I often repeat that to myself when my abusive mother goes off on one at me.
Favourite character? I’d have loved to be taught by Professor McGonagall. She’s so strict but underneath that is kind and human. I’d have probably gravitated towards Neville as a friend at that age because he’s so good-hearted and a massive underdog who finally finds his courage. My favourite has to be Dumbledore though. He’s so wonderfully random but more importantly he actually sees and cares about people - he sees Harry and Neville’s courage, Draco’s innate goodness, Ron’s loyalty even when it wavers, Voldemort’s weaknesses etc. No character in HP is perfect and he is no exception. But he’s great. Finally book (only book) Ginny. She’s the sort of person I would have wanted to be friends with but would have settled for staring at her in awe.
Best spell: I was thinking Legilimens, honestly, because I’m autistic and have huge insecurities about what people are thinking, but it’s a bit trivial for that degree of intrusion. I’m going to settle for Tarantallegra because it would be really funny to see people just dancing about for no reason.