Characters I love Minerva, have a very embarrassing crush on Aberforth, have liked Harry since OotP when he finally got to be angry and sulky and teenager-y, and love Sirius, Severus, and Remus. I like several of the canonically attractive, self-confident characters, namely Bill Weasley, Kingsley Shacklebolt, Cho Chang, Fleur Delaceur and Parvati Patil. Bellatrix is always good value in a dark story.
I limited myself in my list of the characters I’d like to receive to 15, but really, if there’s a character that you’re itching to include that’s not on my list and that I haven’t excluded – go ahead. However, I’m not particularly interested in the student generation and in the Death Eaters, with the exception of Bellatrix, who fascinates me.
Relationships and scenarios: What I like about HP Beholder is that it provides the opportunity to explore truly rare pairings, to take two characters who don’t seem suited to each other in any way and to make it work. So, as long as the scenario created for the characters is believable, I’m happy.
I like first-time scenarios and prefer stories describing the gradual / hesitant / against-all-odds / against-their-better-judgement development of a relationship to established-relationship stories. I like characters learning to grudgingly respect each other and learning to trust, antagonistic characters trapped in power-play scenarios, tension and rivalry. Bittersweet and open endings rather than happily ever after.
Another approach that I like is the exploration of dysfunctional relationships. For example, I like Arthur Weasley and dislike Molly intensely, and nothing can convince me that this is a happy match. A story exploring the dysfunctional character of their relationship would work for me, including infidelity and separation.
I’m fine with most kinks (with the exception of any hard-core body-fluid related ones), as long as they are plausible within the given scenario. I like realism, awkward sex, and hurt/comfort. Incest, interspecies, cross-gen, rape/torture are also fine if backed by plausible motivation and characterisation (e.g. in case of Fenrir Greyback or Bellatrix Lestrange, rape/torture is pretty much a given, and in case of the Gaunts, incest seems inevitable).
Missing scenes are great, and I like stories that explore what the non-Trio characters were doing as the events of the novels unfolded. My preferred eras are OotP and HBP.