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_J.K._Rowling_-_Fantastic_Beasts_and_Where_to_Find_Them_20140530113147938_784

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particular taste for humans. Its low-slung body is covered with<br />

thick reddish-brown hair, as are its five legs, each of which ends<br />

in a clubfoot.The Quintaped is found only upon the Isle of Drear<br />

off the northernmost tip of Scotl<strong>and</strong>. Drear has been made<br />

unplottable for this reason.<br />

Legend has it that the Isle of<br />

Drear was once populated by two<br />

wizarding families, the McCliverts<br />

<strong>and</strong> the MacBoons. A drunken<br />

wizarding duel between Dugald,<br />

chief of the clan McClivert, <strong>and</strong><br />

Quintius, head of the clan MacBoon, is supposed <strong>to</strong> have led <strong>to</strong><br />

the death of Dugald. In retaliation, so the s<strong>to</strong>ry has it, a gang of<br />

McCliverts surrounded the MacBoon dwellings one night <strong>and</strong><br />

Transfigured each <strong>and</strong> every MacBoon in<strong>to</strong> a monstrous fivelegged<br />

creature. The McCliverts realised <strong>to</strong>o late that the<br />

Transfigured MacBoons were infinitely more dangerous in this<br />

state (the MacBoons had the reputation for great ineptitude at<br />

magic). Moreover, the MacBoons resisted every attempt <strong>to</strong> turn<br />

them back in<strong>to</strong> human form. The monsters killed every last one<br />

of the McCliverts until no human remained on the isl<strong>and</strong>. It was<br />

only then that the MacBoon monsters realised that in the absence<br />

of anyone <strong>to</strong> wield a w<strong>and</strong>, they would be forced <strong>to</strong> remain as<br />

they were forevermore.<br />

Whether this tale is true or not will never be known. Certainly<br />

there are no surviving McCliverts or MacBoons <strong>to</strong> tell us what<br />

happened <strong>to</strong> their ances<strong>to</strong>rs. The Quintapeds cannot talk <strong>and</strong><br />

have strenuously resisted every attempt by the Department for<br />

the Regulation <strong>and</strong> Control of Magical Creatures <strong>to</strong> capture a<br />

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