I never in my wildest dreams thought I would write a fanfiction story, I love reading them but I never imagined I'd put my fingers to my keypad and try one myself.

This story however just would not leave my head, so much so that the characters started to take on a life of their own... so I decided since they were living, it was only fair to explore where they might take me too and what wonderful things they might drag up from my imagination.

So I hope you all enjoy.

The chapters will be told from different points of view, mainly Hope and James' but perhaps a few other characters may put their few bobs worth in as well later on, who knows!

As much as I wished I owned even the smallest part of Harry Potter and his world I sadly do not, I do however own Hope - and a few other random people who'll pop up along the way!

But any way enough talking, it is time to crack on!

Hope's POV

From my room I heard the familiar tones of my mother calling up the stairs, 'Hope Katherine Wood aren't you ready to leave yet? The party starts in less than fifteen minutes!'

I groaned to myself, took one more last at myself in the mirror and did a little twirl. Although my curly brown hair was looking a little worse for ware – it had refused to lay flat ever since I returned from quidditch training with my day that afternoon – the rest of me was as presentable as I could ever imagined it being. My cheeks still had a pink post broom ride ting to them, the tan from my holiday in Paris was still lingering and my eyes were looking incredibly blue tonight. As for my outfit, my skinny jeans and gold sparkly jumper would definitely have to do, I wasn't much of a girly girl on the best day, but tonight I was just not in the mood to get all dressed up.

'Coming' I called back, as I grabbed my bag off the bed, ran out of the room and bounded down the stairs to meet my parents and brother who were all ready and waiting in the hallway.

'Right are you ready to go?' my mother asked as I pulled on my boots.

'Not Really' I replied, 'I mean I don't see why I have to go…I'm just really not in the mood. I'd rather stay here and read.'

'What? Why would you want to do that? Don't you want to go and brag about being the brand new Gryffindor Quidditch Captain, even though you're only going into fifth year. An honour which has only been given to one person before, Oliver Wood, the legendary keeper for Puddlemere United, who also happens to be an all-round good guy, handsome, cool and lucky for you and Ollie he's also your father!'

I couldn't help the wide smile that broke across my face as my dad spoke. He is by far one of the greatest people in my life – and he always knows what to do to put me in a good mood.

I've always known I'm blessed to have been born into the Wood family. My parents are both awesome and very committed to one another. They met at school when my mum joined the quidditch team whilst my father was the captain, and despite slowly falling for each other over a number of years they didn't admit their feelings to each other until the Battle of Hogwarts. Yep that's my father Oliver Wood, don't tell the woman of your dreams you love her during one of the many peaceful and perfect moments you have together, no wait until the craziest person alive is trying to kill you all and then tell her.

Both my mum and dad are also really successful in their careers, whilst my dad is the keeper for Puddlemere United and has won the Quidditch Cup on many different occasions, my mum is one of the greatest healers around. She had always banked on playing professional quidditch too, but after the war she decided her calling lay elsewhere. So she trained to be a healer and now specialises in magical brain injuries, particularly people who had been so traumatised that they have had their memory affected as a result.

When they had me, they chose to call me Hope as they said that was what I'd represented to them – hope, that I'd have a life free of war, hope that the Wizarding World had changed for the better with the defeat of Voldemort. And then they'd had my younger brother, Ollie, who was named after both our dad and granddad. Ollie is amazing; in many ways he was a far better person than me, and despite being three years younger he is still quite protective of me. But that is a two way street, I think sometimes I really embarrass him because I fuss and worry about him so much.

My mother, who was also grinning at my dad, rolled her eyes and patted his hand affectionately whilst saying, 'Your father may be misled in regards to how amazing he is, but he is right that you should be excited about going and seeing all your friends. After all you've got two things to be proud of, what with being made a prefect and Quidditch Captain. Besides you haven't seen Fred and Roxanne since the summer started, since they went to see Charlie the second we got back from Paris. And you haven't seen George or Angelina either…and you know they take their role as Godparents very seriously. Plus it is Harry Potter's birthday, not just anyone gets an invite to that.' She winked at me as she finished speaking, causing me to smile despite myself.

I sighed defeated, my parents were right. I did want to celebrate my achievements with my friends and I had missed Rox and Fred loads over the summer – and Aunt Angelina and Uncle George. It was the first summer since I was seven years old that we had spent this long apart, from any of them.

'I know. I can't wait to see Rox and Fred, it is just Potter is going to be there. Besides I'm Co-Captain Dad, so it isn't that great an achievement. Not to mention Fred will probably disown me when he finds out I'm a prefect…'

Ollie smiled and winked at me, whilst mum merely snorted saying Fred could do with a friend who'd help keep him out of trouble, and dad once again protested how brilliant the Wood family was no matter what. And then with that, my parents grabbed our hands and apparated out of our house before I could change my mind.

We landed in the back garden of the Wealsey Burrow where Rox and Fred's grandparents lived and where the majority of their family gatherings still happened. There were people dotted all around, some I recognised and some I didn't. Mum and dad immediately made a move towards the house, muttering something about going to find Harry to wish him a happy birthday and that we should make sure we behaved ourselves.

When mum and dad had gone I turned to look at Ollie, 'I'm going to the bathroom and then I'm going to look for Rox….do you wanna come with me?'

He merely wrinkled his nose at me and said, 'No offense sis, I love you and Roxy and all, but not enough to sit there and hear you talk about girl things all night. Especially since you have some catching up to do, I'm going to see if I can find Louis.'

'Ok, if you are sure…be safe though, and if you need me come and find me.'

He rolled his eyes at me then, muttered that he'd be safe and then dashed off. I turned and walked towards the house following the same direction my parents had taken.

I had just come out of the bathroom on the first floor when a familiar and unwelcome voice said, 'Well hello Miss Wood, can I just say how mighty fine you are looking tonight!'

Great, just who I hadn't wanted to see two minutes after walking through the door.

I turned to glare at him and asked in a rather seething voice, 'Urgh what do you want Potter?'

Potter then took a step back, holding his chest in mock agony, his brown eyes deliberately going wide.

'Oh Wood, why does there always have to be this hostility between us? I mean I know you fancy me bu-'

'Me, fancy you? I think you might want to reconsider which way around that is you little pervert.' I cut across him angrily, my temper already rising after a minute in his company.

Meanwhile he seemed to remain as unbelievably cool and collected as ever, standing there with a stupid smirk on his face, casually ruffling his black and messy hair, looking as if he owned the place. After a second of silence he cockily moved forward an inch, taking up part of my personal space.

'Are you quite finished protesting my dear?' he asked moving a further step towards me.

This caused me to back away slightly as my heart started beating a little harder as my cheeks flushed and my eyes narrowed a little in annoyance. I was trying to figure out what his motives were for being such a slimy, smarmy arse, not that I had to wait that long. He continued speaking, as though he didn't even register my unease.

'I mean you know what they say about the lady doth protest too much…I just thought you might like to wish your new Captain good luck for the coming quidditch season, maybe offer me some special service to make sure I keep you around on the team this year. Yo-'

'You arrogant, arrogant arse!' I shouted stopping him in mid flow, my previous flustering forgotten now as I moved into his personal space pushing him as hard as I could in the chest. Unfortunately due to how bloody tall he was and how well developed his quidditch muscles were he only stumbled a bit.

He still seemed to be oblivious to how bloody angry I was though, as he carried on with his taunting laugh and asked sweetly, 'What did I say something to annoy you?'

'Let us get something's straight shall we?' I said fiercely, 'One, we are co-captains this year. That means we have to work together and we make decisions together. As much as I hate having to work with you on anything we just have to get through it. And you will not, and I repeat not, be offering anyone preferential treatment on our team in return for any favours – sexual or not!'

He raised an eyebrow at that and tried speaking, trying to claim he would never really do such a thing. I merely held up my hand to stop him talking. My face must have shown how furious I was because he quickly shut up. Allowing me to carry on where I had left off.

'Two, I do not fancy you do you hear? I happen to find you quite disgusting and if you ever try anything on with me, I will not think twice about cursing you and a certain body part I'm sure you are quite fond of.

'Three, I happen to love your family – especially Rox and Fred – who for some unknown reason seem to think you are the greatest guy ever. This is the only reason I have refrained from transfiguring you into the dung beetle you so obviously are over the last four years. But please try and remember this year that although I love the rest of your family, and count many of them amongst my best friends, I don't include you in this list and I won't hesitate to do what I have to in order to keep you off my back. We're not friends, ok? We put up with each other's company because we're in the same friendship circle, but we will never be on friendly terms. Therefore I don't think we have to go out of the way to speak to each other, except on the quidditch field for obvious reasons. I am so sick of you and all your crap and I'm not dying to have anymore, I mean four years is enough for me thank you very much! So there we are, you avoid any prolonged contact with me, and I will avoid any prolonged contact with you.'

I stopped, feeling less angry all of a sudden. In fact I felt a little cruel to be honest. I mean, Merlin knows I didn't like James Potter, but he wasn't perhaps as bad as I had just made out. He also seemed genuinely taken aback by what I'd just said, not to mention a little hurt.

Before he had a chance to respond I smiled weakly at him and said, 'Umm, well I guess we should get back to the party? It is your dad's birthday after all and you should probably be with your family.'

And with that I stepped past him, muttering a lousy goodbye as I escaped downstairs.

By the time I reached the bottom of the stairs I was feeling a little queasy and upset. That was definitely one of the more emotionally charged meetings with Potter. Sure we had run ins before, pretty much every week since first year in fact, but I'd never been that harsh to him.

I took a shuddering breath as I entered the kitchen and saw a large group of people, including James' younger siblings Albus and Lily Potter, and with them was Fred – one of my very best friends. But since he's also best friends with James I wasn't too sure I could face his company right now. In fact I wasn't feeling much like socialising with anyone except Roxanne and she was nowhere in sight. Grabbing a butterbeer I made a quick dash out of the door that led into the backyard, escaping before anyone spotted me.

The second I stepped outside I was thankful for the breeze and the fresh air, it helped to ease the waves of sickness I'd been feeling since my run in with Potter. Taking a deep breath I started moving up the garden path towards the lake, passing groups of people as I went. I couldn't see mum and dad anywhere though, nor had I seen Ollie since we'd separated in the garden.

Knowing Ol he'd probably be off annoying James somewhere, my brother and I are so alike in many ways but so different in others. I may detest James but Ollie adores him, he is his idol and I can't help thinking it must be a boy thing. James is good natured about it most of the time though and always makes sure to speak to Ollie and to ask him how he is. Ollie is in Lily's year at Hogwarts and when they first started James went out of his way to make sure the two became friends, not to mention he looked out for Ol the same way he would have done for any other member of his family. Whatever James is like and no matter what my feelings towards him might be, the way he treated my little brother did go a long way towards making up for some of his bigger flaws.

But thinking about that just made me feel even worse for some my previous comments to Potter….

Suddenly I saw a familiar mass of frizzy black hair in front of me and thanking Merlin for sending me the one person I really needed right now I set of at a sprint, shouting her name as I went.

'Hey Rox, Foxy Roxy, wait up!'

She turned to face me, her grin widening to show all her brilliant teeth, which are beautifully white next to her honey complexion.

'Hope, there you are! Where the hell have you been? We saw Ollie ages ago and we've been trying to find you ever since!'

It was then I realised she was accompanied by Dominique, another member of the Weasley gang.

When I finally caught up with the two of them, I bear hugged Rox and tackled her playfully. I don't think I had really understood how much I had missed her until I saw her standing there. The last time I remember spending this long away from her was when I started at Hogwarts, seeing as how I am a year older – and that had been one of the hardest years of my life. Even during the summer we'd usually see each other about once a week, so the month long separation had been a tough one.

When I finally let Rox go I turned to Dominique and gave her a quick hug as well. Then I stepped back and said, 'Urgh, yeah sorry. I was going to come and find you when I'd used the bathroom, but I sort of got cornered by your cousin literally about two seconds after coming through the door as well! I'm afraid I may have been a bit of a bitch to him…'

Rox and Dom shared a quick amused glance with each other, before Roxanne linked her arms in mine and Dom's, turned towards the lake and started walking once again.

'Oh you two' Rox sang in her lovely thick voice, 'Why don't you tell your Aunty Roxy and your Aunty Dominique all about what exactly happened this time…'