But, setting that aside for the present, is there such a being as what is termed the Black Spectre, mysteriously connected, if I may say so, with our family ?" His mother's face got pale as death.
"Why do you ask, Harry ?" said she.
"Because," he replied, "I have reason to think that I have seen it twice." "Alas! alas!" she exclaimed, "then the doom of the curse is upon you.

It selects only one of every generation on which to work its vengeance.

The third appearance of it will be fatal to you." "This is all contemptible absurdity, my dear mother.

I don't care if I saw it a thousand times.

How can it interfere with my fate ?" "It does not interfere," she replied, "it only intimates it, and whatever the nature of the individual's death among our family may be, it shadows it out.