She supposed it was a blessing for the younger students to have something normal like a Christmas party to look forward to. Instead of waking up every morning to dread who in their family might have been taken from them. This would be something to keep the darkness at bay. And maybe that was the entire plan of the thing. To make sure the students didn't succumb to the darkness inside the castle, where it had started to seep in through cracks every night when Death Eaters would continue to raise hell around the country and the supposed Ministry did nothing to stop it or even find the people responsible. No one said it out loud. But every witch and wizard knew that Pius Thicknese wasn't the real Minister. He was just a puppet being led by another Master. And no one dared to stand up to this Master.