Unprepared
South Africa- Two weeks earlier
Ginny was lying face down, covered in mud and unclothed as she watched three Giraffes prowling through the city, she had been staying there for a week and had met various people who confirmed Harry's theory. Somehow all communications had gone down and they were stranded, anyone attempting to leave was never seen again, Ginny however was hiding here. She had seen people being plucked from three storey buildings and had seen the Giraffes using various objects to climb up buildings, using stands and sometimes their necks. These ones seemed very strong, strong enough to tear through walls. However while she been living on rooftops so high the Giraffes seemed small she was watching here because she had seen them coming and needed a closer look. She was a journalist and that was about taking risks, besides Harry needed her and now she knew he was right she also knew it was essential this was done. She had removed her clothes so there was no way of the Giraffes seeing her, skin latched onto mud a lot easier she found.
She had to hold back a scream when she saw the Giraffes chose a building she knew had a family within to search and she saw people trying to get away but after a few long minutes the Giraffes moved on and she knew they were dead.
Beginning of the conflict
It had started with the newspapers, the prime minister had said something that defied all reasoning and logic. His plan to have every Giraffe in Britain deported had been seen as insane and cruel by animals rights protestors who had flocked to London Zoo. Signs and placards dotted the area outside the Giraffe enclosure and the people supposed to load them into trucks and shipping yards were refused access. Zookeepers joined in and the hours ticked by and then all three Giraffes walked out of their indoor accommodation.
Grimmauld Place
"You really shouldn't have gone," Harry commented as he walked into Ginny's room, she barely looked up but smiled. She was sat on the floor surrounded by various slips of paper
"You keep saying that," she told him in deep thought while studying a slip of paper.
"Seriously you could have been killed," Harry continued but realised there was no point in going on about it now.
"I know but if I hadn't you would still be in the nuthouse, besides I'm fine." Ginny commented
"What are you doing?" Harry asked crouching down to look at what she was reading, She shuffled closer to him
"It's an emergency call, one of my contacts said I should check it out, look it says and this is in translation. Oh God! Please send someone their coming! No, No. The responder then asks what and she says kameelperd. In Afrikaans that means..."
"Giraffe," Harry hissed darkly, "What country is this from?"
"Zambia," was Ginny's response and they looked at each other.
"They're next," Harry muttered and looked down, Ginny put a comforting hand on his shoulder.
"You really can't blame yourself for the world not being prepared, you were ignored and put in a hospital, besides it better late than never," she soothed gently, Harry looked at her before sitting down.
"It's not that, it's just this is really happening. I knew it was coming but now it's here it's just..." he trailed off not having the words to describe it.
"I know, but we have a chance I mean we are an island and all the Giraffes in zoos have been sent back to the wild by Fudge or the muggle prime minister, who made the front page this morning." Ginny commented. Harry withdrew a paper from his pocket
Prime Ministers Breakdown, was the headline and Ginny nodded.
"Well it took wizards ten years to accept it and muggles don't even know about magic," Ginny reasoned realising she should have checked the muggle papers and not just gone on what she heard.
"I suppose," Harry agreed and Ginny moved closer to him,
"You know in ten years we haven't had a moment to ourselves without a pane of glass or Luna between us," she commented and Harry nodded.
"So why don't we..." Ginny began but the door to her room burst open,
"Ginny... oh I'm not interrupting am I?" Ron asked awkwardly in something of a panic.
"No, what is it?" she asked.
"You need to see this,"
London Zoo
People screamed when a zookeeper trying to tend to the animals was pulled into the air and devoured by the nearest Giraffe. All of them now had razor-sharp teeth and with unseen strength burst free of their confinement. With all the protestors and press they had a moving buffet which had lasted almost an hour before an emergency response team had been briefed; the first police officers had been eaten as had the armed division. Bullets bounced off the mighty creatures whom plucked many men into the air and with a flash of teeth and a scream they were gone. Eventually when they had eaten almost all of the zoo occupants the Giraffes charged out onto the streets of London. They were met with six tanks which after several shots, two losses and extreme firepower took them down. In total eight hundred people had been eaten.
Meanwhile
"They had to be brave to try this," Harry muttered as he watched the news, it seemed Sirius had gotten himself a muggle TV set which had news channels going insane. Some were spouting about genetic engineering, others claimed it was a hoax and almost every maniac was on TV giving their insane theory.
"Mr Jones what do you blame for this?" someone was asking as Harry flicked through the channels.
"Well this is obviously the work of the EU space Nazi's," was the insightful insane response and in a world under attack from carnivorous Giraffes it was insane.
"What do you mean?" Sirius asked suddenly,
"Well when you're slowly taking over countries the thing you don't do is reveal yourself to a relatively powerful country," Harry answered; to him it made no sense.
"But aren't they just animals?" was the next question and Harry just shook his head.
"They are a lot of things, but just animals isn't one of them or we'd know about them already, anyway why attack now?" Harry mumbled studying the screen in front of him with varying degrees of intensity.
"Maybe Giraffes aren't the best strategists," Ron suggested and Harry nodded
"Or they know they can't be stopped," Harry clicked the pieces together
"Now while not believing you has proved to be the worst mistake of my life they were taken down," Ron pointed out and Harry nodded.
"Maybe so but think about it, it took six tanks to bring down three. What if there were ten? Or twenty? A hundred? A thousand? It goes on and on," Harry answered sweeping around the room.
"What are you saying?" Ron asked with a frown
"I'm saying that this is it, this is the big push. This is the beginning, the beginning for a third world war," Harry whispered lowly.
"A third world war against Giraffes," Sirius clarified with a groan.
Two weeks later
All of Africa fell, at first it was Zambia, Botswana and Zimbabwe and as people slowly started to accept what was going on the Giraffes secured their position. Then legions of the creatures marched on the rest of Africa, seemingly immune to almost all weaponry, magic bounced off them and out of the estimated twenty thousand Giraffes only two hundred fell. While after the two weeks was up an estimated two million people managed to escape the continent to Europe and the middle east, out of the billion people in Africa this number was tiny.
GDI
The Giraffe Defence Initiative, established by Fudge once it became apparent diplomacy was taking precedent over the apocalypse. It was hard to muster a defence when you had eight countries threatening war if a soldier so much looked in their direction, not that he expected ay more of that. All eight of those countries were now gone and their people refugees or being served as dinner.
"Thanks you ladies and gentleman and welcome to the first meeting of the Giraffe Defence Initiative, I will now hand you over to Harry Potter who is one of the leading experts in the Giraffe invasion," Fudge announced standing on a huge podium in the middle of a circular room. He was addressing around thirty people, twenty eight from NATO members and the others from countries getting a little too close to the Giraffe horde for comfort.
"Hello I am Harry Potter, I was the first to be made aware of the Giraffe threat..." Harry began
"Excuse me exactly how long have you known?" A woman with a thick French accent demanded
"Ten years," Harry answered not realising what he was saying.
"Excuse me! Ten years and you have not alerted us of the..." she continued.
"Mr Potter was not believed until evidence came to light a number of weeks ago, Mr Potter was thought of as mad for some time," Fudge interjected smiling awkwardly at the people now glaring at him. Maybe he should have checked the facts after all.
"As I was saying the Giraffes are currently the greatest threat we are facing, they are seemingly immune to all magical and muggle weapons," Harry announced, seeing as magical peoples were no longer a needed secret a number of leaks had been made and while nothing had been confirmed soldiers and wizards had been seen fighting side by side.
"If they are not stopped then the predicated dead exceeds six billion, currently states who have not joined the GDI are preparing for liberation of Africa, something I would advise against as current trends predict they will be defeated."
A month after the Fall of Africa
The northern part of Egypt quickly amassed a force intending to take down the Giraffes and formed an alliance other countries. Old rivals and hates were abandoned but the liberation of Africa comprising of eighteen different countries failed, the Giraffes swarmed the rest of Egypt, all of Jordan and Palestine fell. Israel however had massed a defence in the form of giant stone walls which remain un and Palestine fell. Israel however had massed a defence in the form of giant stone walls which remain under siege.
A week later
Iran fell next and the Giraffes marched into Iraq soon after, the Middle East as a whole fell except six Israeli cites which are still safe from the invasion. GDI membership has now reached fifty with all Nato countries involved along with other powers including China, India and other Asian countries who are at direct risk.
Gibraltar- The same day
Harry and Ginny touched down at noon, both of them were here as GDI (despite their complaints) and were told to investigate the rock's security.
"Well here we are," Harry announced as he put down Ginny's luggage in her room, he had brought one suitcase while she had brought several, three of which he had ended up carrying including his own.
"Nice room," Ginny commented looking through a pair of tinted sunglasses, she was wearing a short cut dress which may have been part of the reason Harry had agreed to carry her clothes.
"I'm next door," Harry responded moving to pick up his suitcase. Ginny however was staring out of the window and towards the shining blue sea, a sea that was dotted with naval boats. Ships from all over the world surrounded as much of Africa as possible just in case,
"We're going to be fine," Harry told her comfortingly and she broke away from her line of sight and smiled meekly,
"I know it's just..."
"The looming apocalypse?" Harry questioned knowing what monsters laid wait on the other side. Ginny chuckled and nodded, disguising her thoughts with humour.
"Something like that," Ginny answered before yawning
"Well we have a day or so to kill before we have to meet with the guy so come on let's go out," she grinned with a wink
"Sure," Harry agreed, it would be good to relax seeing as he had been working twenty-four seven pretty much over the last few weeks. Though this time he didn't realise his prediction of the Giraffes one day finding a way across oceans was coming true.