A/N: Thank you as always to my wonderful betas who worked on this. Any challenges/competitions this has been entered in are listed at the bottom so as not to give anything away.

Abandon Logic

She had meant to save the world. Falling in love had never been part of the plan.

The bedroom they were lying in smelled like the sea air as Lily traced a pattern against Hermione's bare leg. They had been talking about favourite holidays and as soon as Hermione had said Cornwall the air had filled with scents that reminded her of seagulls and ice cream on the beach.

"I shouldn't be doing this, yet I don't want to stop."

"That thought crossed my mind at some point last night," James mumbled sleepily into his pillow.

"You had two naked, beautiful women all over you, I'm surprised you had the capacity to think at all."

Lily smiled as she spoke then shifted to face Hermione fully, her expression soft.

"Is it so bad to be selfish for once? To indulge?"

Hermione wanted to laugh, to cry, to disappear into the warmth of their embrace.

She had done the impossible and mastered time travel to make a difference. She had wanted to save all that had been lost — and over the past two years she had. There was still so much to do and yet whilst she had planned for mitigating circumstances or hold ups on her plans along the way, Hermione had certainly not been prepared for how James Potter's smile made her lose her train of thought.

They had kissed on New Years. It had been a dare from Sirius (of course it was Sirius); it had been cliché as the Prewitt twins set off illegal fireworks from the North Tower. It had made her toes curl and left her addicted to his slightly chapped lips and a warm hand against the small of her back.

Of course Hermione had wanted to change things. She had wanted to obliterate things, to make her original timeline unrecognisable — after all, she was never going back.

Breaking James and Lily up however had felt like a step too far. With Harry's face in her mind and James' pleas, his words of confusion ringing in her ears, Hermione had called it off.

She had always been excellent at compromising, at prioritising everything before herself but this time it hurt.

This time none of her decisions had felt right. Nothing had felt easy.

Lily had become her best friend over time and refused to date James, no matter how many times Hermione had explained it had to be this way.

Had Hermione known the simple solution had been veritaserum and tequila over a game of truth or dare, she would have downed six shots months ago and saved herself the heartache.

Veritaserum worked in curious ways. Admitting she was a time traveller had been what Hermione had expected, so of course there were contingency plans laid down for that. Declaring her love for James despite everything had also seemed equally predictable.

What she hadn't been prepared for the truth serum dredging up distant wishes and fantasies, for her feelings about Lily to be laid bare. Lily, who she shared a dorm with and would do anything for. Lily, who was straight surely and had eyes you could lose yourself in.

Could she be selfish?

James rolled over, reaching for his glasses even as he looked at her expectantly both he and Lily still waiting for an answer to the question.

After more tequila shots and equal declarations of interest from both of them, Hermione had taken control of the situation and proposed a threesome. Of course she hadn't expected them to agree.

She hadn't expected it to be amazing.

More than that, she hadn't expected to lie in bed, the air smelling of the sea with the dawn peering through the cracks in the curtains, and feel emotion so deep for each of them that it scared.

"I don't do quickies or flings, last night notwithstanding," Hermione began.

"Honestly, I love you both and have for a long time." James said it so simply it left Hermione speechless.

"I don't know what I'm feeling and being in some sort of threesome relationship —"

"Polyamorous," Hermione corrected Lily without thinking.

"That," Lily said dryly. "But it's more than lust so I want to work it out."

The silence that fell over them felt charged, as though the next words spoken would change everything.

"Okay. I'm going to be selfish," Hermione murmured before kissing them both.

"You know we never did talk about that other thing you said during truth or dare," James said slowly.

"One life changing revelation at a time."

Lily laughed, falling back against the pillows and Hermione put her hand over James' as she finally let herself feel.

A/N: This was primarily written for Week 13 of the Pairing the Character Competition on HPFC (It was James Potter).

For Hogwarts this has been entered in:

- The Insane House Challenge - 944. Restriction: Only Gryffindors.

- Fanfic Resolutions Challenge - 11. Write a triad or morose

- The 365 Prompts Challenge - 313. Title: Abandon Logic.

- The January Sticker Challenge - Time Turner (write a fic that involves time travel)

- Bath Bombs Appreciation Challenge - Chocolate Kisses (write about kissing someone the character shouldn't)

and Dragon Appreciation Month.