I have searched the forum for this subject but it came up with nothing I apoligise if there is.

Quintaped (Hairy MacBoon)

In HBP HP see a five legged skeleton in a cage in the cupboard where he hides the HBP potions book is this a Quintaped (Hairy MacBoon) which no one at the MoM has every managed to capture. If so who captured it and what did they use it for.

Fantastic Beasts and Where to find Them book description of a Hairy MacBoon

MoM classification: XXXXX

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.

Legend has it that the Isle of Drear was once populated by two wizarding families, the McCliverts and the MacBoons. A drunken wizarding duel between Dugald, Chief of the clan McClivert, and Quintias, Head of the MacBoon , is supposed to have led to the death of Dugald. In retaliation , so the story has it, a gang of McCliverts surrounded the MacBoon dwellings one night and Transfigured each and every MacBoon into a monstrous five legged creature. The McCliverts realised too late the Transfigured MacBoons were infinitely more dangerous in this state (the MacBoons had the reputation for great ineptitude at magic). Moreover, the MacBoons resisted every attempt to turn the back into Human form.

The monsters killed every last one of the McCliverts until no human remained on the island. It was only then that the MacBoon monsters realised that in the absence of anyone to wield a wand, they would have to remain as they were for evermore.

Whether this tale is true or not will never be known. Certainly there are no surviving McCliverts or MacBoons to tell us what happened to their ancesters. The Quintapeds cannot talk and have strenuously resisted every attempt by the Department for the Regulation and Control of Magical Creatures to capture a specimen and try to untransfigure it, so we must assume that if they are indeed, as their nickname suggests, Hairy MacBoons, they are quite happy to live out their days as beasts.


End of description.
I have searched the forum for this subject but it came up with nothing I apoligise if there is.

Wow! This is an excellent find! I totally disregarded the skeleton!

The ministry has never captured one - perhaps they're not the right size? So I came up with one person who would fit the description

Hagrid!

For his love of animals of all kinds and his size I think it would be pretty easy for him to handle this Quintaped. Then again, was he in school long enough to get a hold of one? Also, how did he get one? They're only found in Drear? How did Hagrid know to get there (if the person who raised this creature was Hagrid).

Hmmm....wonder if that island was part of Hagrid's journey with Harry along the way to Privet Drive? Could he have grabbed up a little one and tried to raise it, to bad consequence? Very interesting....

That would make sense pumpkinjuice but why would it then be in the room of requirement and Hogwarts? We don’t even know if Hagrid knows that such a room exists.

Could be that's where someone decided to put it cuz Hagrid wasnt really able to control it--maybe they asked the room to "contain the Quintaped successfully"? Or, it is possible Hagrid did know about the room by then, having been Keeper of the Keys and Gamekeeper all that time. Trelawney knew, and apparently other teachers over the years, so why not Hagrid?

Or maybe it died and that's where they just decided to put the body.

Yes! That is an excellent observation; I merely focused on the book, and I forgot to look about for anything else. I agree with the person who said that, in all probability, it was Hagrid who let that skeleton come to be. I mean, he thought Aragog was cuddly, he raised a 3 headed dog, he loves dragons, he cares for blast ended skrewts, and he cares for his GIANT brother! I think that a man eating monster would fit right in, and he would love the challenge. I am just wondering how it died.. something must have gone horribly awry..

OOh I love little things like this in the series! They are a breath of fresh air when straying away from the hardcore topics like "Is Harry A Horcrux", "RAB" and "Who is Snape loyal to?".

Hmm I'm not entirely sure it was Hagrid. Hagrid would have tended to it, and not have let it die, and if it did died, I doubt Hagrid would have left its corpse in the RoR. It may very well have been an old DADA Professor who caught and tried to teach the students... perhaps the ministry showed up for a spot check, and they ditched the dangerous creature in the RoR to escape persecution!

Hmm, sadly, I doubt we will ever find out what its story is.

~Albus

Albus Dumbledore, I always love your posts! They give a logical explanation I would never think of! AND I’m sick of the who is RAB thread! Honestly like I have the time to look through 9 different threads of RAB theorie! Ugggghh *silently screaming*

Anyways

Yes I suppose it couldn’t be Hagrid but what if he had the Quintaped BEFORE he was sent away then brought back as gamekeeper. Perhaps he wasn’t allowed inside certain rooms like the ROR and couldn’t take care of it?

Thanks Jiggery! I, too, admire your posts and I am glad you are a member of this forum!

Hmm I suppose it could have been Hagrid who caught the beast, but I do not think that Hagrid was sent away when expelled in his third year because at that time his father had already died, and Dumbledore, being the caring man he is, allowed Hagrid to stay on as Gamekeeper (or perhaps even apprentice gamekeeper at such an age). Perhaps it was Hagrid's during his few years of school, and it died naturally and Hagrid left it there for fear of being caught.

~Albus

What if it was Tom Riddle and he used it for some dark magic experiments or to dispose of a human body.

uuh daz horrid thought there! ! ! - brilliant idea *runs to get voldy and attempts to lock him in the cage with the man-eating beast*
If it was Hagrid who looked after it, it could have died accidently. He migth have been keeping it in the RoR, so that no one got eaten, and then he might have been sent away. *like when he was sent ot Azkaban for a while - when was that? - something to do with Buckbeak?*
and then when he came back it had died from lack of feeding *once again attempts to feed Voldy to it* ! So he might have just put it in there so no one would find it with al lthe other junk!
well thats my theory *and a few ideas of how to kill voldy*
.X.

Hagrid seems like a logical answer, but i am not sure. This is really interesting! But if the ministry of magic has never been able to capture one, how would Hagrid?

I don't know if this will play a role in book 7, but could be!

Maybe it was another illegal trader gave it to him ( ? )
Maybe it was from one of the founders, maybe Slytherin had one ( i mean he had a basilisk, why not one of these too) and then when he left it died.
.X.

Albus, great new perspective! I wouldn't have thought about that. Yes, you are absolutely right, Hagrid would have buried it or something. He wouldn't just leave it there; maybe he had to kill it? I doubt it, Hagrid just isn't that way.

Yes, I agree. It's something that we will probably don't know the answer to. JKR must love throwing this stuff in here!

Is it possible that Rowling just put in this small detail to make the ROR cathedral ceiling-ed room descriptive? What if this skeleton has nothing to do with the plot? I swear we need to get Rowling on the phone and ask her.

I think if we called her up she'd be pretty shocked that we all noticed weird stuff like this! *lets call her* !
This is a really strange discussion *i love it*.
This creature probably has something to do with Hagrid, because if it was very very very old the bones would have turned to dust *eww*. If not HAgrid probably Voldy is the prime choice!
.X.

amortentia_lover, why do you think that Voldy would be choice two? I mean, obviously Hagrid is a prime suspect, despite all of the doubts because he loves extremely violent animals . Voldemort, that's an interesting choice. Hey, I don't think it's likely, but maybe Fred and George? Maybe they were trying out something for their snack boxes that went horribly wrong?

Ha! that's a good idea.
Well maybe Voldy had one, he being evil and all and this animal being a man-eater. They probably got along quite nicely. Maybe he threatened students - it said in the books that his time a t Hogwarts was surrounded by many unpleasant happenings ( haven't got the quote sorry), so maybe he used it when he was there!!!
I don't think fred and george would have gone so far as to have a man-eating creature for research!!
.X.

Wow! I think that's a very interesting beast,because it's very difficult to catch,but maybe voldemort could have a Quintapied to make any plan in the seventh book.

And Hagrid...If he has one of these quintapieds...it isn't strange.Hagrid had got lots of weird criatures in all the six books: a baby dragon,Aragog...He always looks after dangerous criatures and he doesn't care what people have said about him.

Wow that's a scary looking beast Horavlo.

Question - Since I've lost my copy of Fantastic Beasts and Where to Find Them I was wondering if Quintaped are large or if they are just the same size as the picture. Because, if they're big, I'm sure they wouldn't fit in a cage in a cramped room

it depends if the cage is small or not, surely a man-eating bird-creature thing couldn't be small enough to fit in what i imagined was a bird cage? if it was a small cage, thana i thing it was just someone practicing transfiguration and it went awry.