Quintaped

Quintaped
Species information
Hair colour	Red-brown
Native to	Isle of Drear
Alternative names	Hairy MacBoons
Mortality	Mortal
Distinction	Five legs Carnivorous, taste for human flesh Extremely dangerous and hostile towards humans
Ministry of Magic Classification	Beast XXXXX
Status	Extant

"The Quintaped is a highly dangerous carnivorous beast with a particular taste for humans. Its low-slung body is covered with thick reddish-brown hair, as are its five legs, each of which ends in a clubfoot. The Quintaped is found only upon the Isle of Drear off the northernmost tip of Scotland. Drear has been made unplottable for this reason."

— Newton Scamander, Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

The Quintaped, also known as the Hairy MacBoon, was a dangerous magical beast with five legs, each ending in a clubfoot, and was covered with thick, red-brown hair.

Nature

Distribution

Quintapeds were only found of the Isle of Drear, which lay off the northernmost tip of Scotland. The isle had been made Unplottable to minimise the danger posed by these creatures.

Interaction with humans

The quintaped was carnivorous, with a particular taste for humans and as such were extremely hostile towards them.

Abilities

Quintaped have a certain degree of spell resistance, as they resisted the various attempts to untransfigure them into human form.

Uses

The five club footed legs of the Quintaped were used to represent the number five, in the runic alphabet.

History

An illustration of a Quintaped in Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them

According to legend, Isle of Drear was once home to two rival Scottish wizard clans, the MacBoon clan and the McClivert clan. One fateful night, the family heads, Dugald McClivert and Quintius MacBoon, engaged in a drunken wizard's duel, which resulted in Dugald's death. In retaliation, the McCliverts later crept up on the sleeping MacBoons and turned every one of them into monstrous five-legged beasts. The McCliverts realised too late that they had only made the MacBoons more deadly. Resisting desperate McClivert attempts to untransfigure them, the MacBoons killed all the resident McCliverts.

Until the time of the story proper, the Quintapeds have resisted all attempts by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to Untransfigure them, and they are unable to communicate with the Quintaped. It can only be assumed that, if they are indeed MacBoons, they are happy to live the rest of their lives as Quintapeds. It is also possible that the MacBoons lost their human intelligence and memories in the process.

Jacob's sibling petting Caelan on Hogwarts grounds

During the 1988–1989 school year, when Jacob's sibling, Chiara Lobosca and Barnaby Lee spotted what appeared to be a Moon Frog (actually Sir Ribbithe who had been feeding on Glow Bugs) near the Great Lake at Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry, Barnaby took a photo of him, on which a Quintaped could be seen in the background. Jacob's sibling later learnt from Rubeus Hagrid that it had been he who brought the Quintaped to the vicinity, and that he was named "Caelan", after Caelan MacBoon.

An appeased Quintaped in Care of Magical Creatures class

Despite these beasts being extremely dangerous towards humans, Professor Silvanus Kettleburn taught seventh-years students in Care of Magical Creatures during the 1990–1991 school year about how to safely handle and study Quintapeds, with the eccentric professor quipping that students would learn how to not die in his class.

In 1997, whilst hiding a book in the Room of Requirement at Hogwarts, Harry Potter saw a cage containing a dried skeleton of a long dead Quintaped in the room.

Etymology

The prefix quint- means "five", while -ped refers to legs. Hence, "quintaped" refers to something having five legs (maybe saying Fivelegs); this leads to a mystery about a relation to the similar creature 5 Legger. The Quint-part of the name could possibly be taken from the legend-told Quintius MacBoon whose first name starts with Quint and was transformed to a Quintaped.

Behind the scenes

Quintaped (Trading Card)

• In Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince, when Harry is hiding his Potions textbook in the Room of Requirement, he sees a cage containing the skeleton of a creature with five legs. This has been confirmed to be a Quintaped by J.K. Rowling on Twitter, although concept-art for the creature in the films showed it to be quite different.
• In the 2018 illustrated edition of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them, Quintapeds were mistakenly given a new classification of XX, though their description remained unchanged.
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery gives the player the ability to handle, study and even pet Quintapeds without any apparent risk of the beast attacking them, which seems rather odd, considering how dangerous and carnviorous these beasts are.

Appearances

• Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince (Appears as skeleton)
• Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them (First appearance)
• Pottermore
• Harry Potter Trading Card Game
• Harry Potter: Hogwarts Mystery

Notes and references

[[pt-br:Quintípede