And now it is time for showering and dinner!

Some time after dinner, Clarita tracks down the group, which is once again ensconced in the shop. She casts a reservedly impressed look at the in-progress harp, then says, "I've talked to several senior artificers and maintenance people, and we think we have a workable plan." 

"All ears," says Aadhya.

She describes it. 

Over the course of the last week before graduation, the seniors are going to close off every exit from the shop floor to the rest of the school--including the air vents, so it's not going to be a great place to be for non-mal-related reasons, sorry--as thoroughly as possible, except for the stairs. On the day of graduation, a senior is going to go down to the shop level in the early morning, setting up an artifice that one of the artificers had had as a class assignment earlier in the year and then mostly disregarded--a sort of mana fuse, which, assuming they get the amount to use and how fast it burns through calculated correctly, and lay the correct amount--should activate the honeypot setups less than a minute before the seniors are dumped into the hall. Once that's set up, the senior retreats back upstairs and the door into the stairwell is barricaded. 

The idea is that when the mortal flame sweeps through, it should take out any mals which had successfully broken into the shop level, and also the honeypot artifices. Then the juniors can unbarricade the stairwell, and Lucia and El can sweep the shop level for remaining mals. 

"That's going to screw over anyone who needs the shop."

Clarita shrugs, like, less than that roomful of mals would screw over the senior class. 

"Shop finals are nastier than math tests, if people can't get theirs in because you blocked off the floor for a week. Leaving aside whether you care if fifty freshmen die to their basketweaving projects strangling them, they're going to have every reason to sabotage your barricade!"

She makes a face. “Fine. It will be harder, but we’ll create movable barricades, and put them up the day before. Everyone can deal with one less day.”

"I hope for your sake you're not wrong about that! I guess as long as we're doing mana handouts we can prioritize anyone running late in shop."

“If it is necessary,” Clarita grits out, “I will personally assist stragglers.”

"See, that'll go over much better than screwing over other people. Well done."

“I didn’t want to lead with ‘procrastinate on your project and the senior valedictorian will do it.’”

"Mine's already done. Let's just not kill fifty freshmen with their own baskets."

“Yes, I agree,” she says, not even slightly glancing at Lucia.

”Good,” Lucia says, “if you need backup for finishing projects, tell them to show up just before dinner while I’m glowing.”

"Anything else to cover just now?"

Clarita glances discreetly at the Golden Stone Sutras. “Not unless any of you have discovered anything else monumental in the last few days.”

"Nothing new."

“Good to know I can still keep up,” Clarita says, and leaves.

”She’s okay. She’ll improve the average quality of New York, at any rate.”

"Much joy may it bring her."

Shrug. ”As well her as anyone.”  

A few days later, after class, Magnus Tebow and Chloe Rasmussen from New York approach El after class. After a moment’s pause, Chloe elbows Magnus.

”—I’m sorry,” he says with poorly-concealed reluctance. A little more sharply: “I wasn’t trying to kill you.”

"- the hell you weren't!"

“All the crawler had was a mana-siphon spell! It wasn’t going to do anything really awful to you unless you had gone as far down the path of maleficing as Lucia insists you haven’t.”

"I'm strict mana, genius!"

He gawps at her. “Like hell!” 
“Magnus,” Chloe hisses, elbowing him harder.