We propose a fine-tuning strategy for English Multi-class Hope Speech Detection using Mistral, leveraging two complementary datasets: PolyHope and CDB, a new unified framework for hope speech detection. While the former provides nuanced hope-related categories such as GENERALIZED, REALISTIC, and UNREALISTIC HOPE, the later introduces linguistically grounded dimensions including COUNTERFACTUAL, DESIRE, and BELIEF. By fine-tuning Mistral on both datasets, we enable the model to capture deeper semantic representations of hope. In addition to fine-tuning, we developed advanced prompting strategies which provide interpretable, zero-shot alternatives and further inform annotation and classification designs. Our approach achieved third place in the multi-class (Macro F1=71.77) and sixth in the binary (Macro F1=85.35) settings.