There was a sharp click.
The lock, reinforced with several binding spells, fell away, and the iron door creaked open.
The fat owner stared, dumbfounded.
Then a surge of fury went straight to his head.
"How dare you attack this place!"
The owner roared in outrage, "Do you know where you are? Robbing a wizard of his personal property in broad daylight! If the Ministry of Magic finds out, every last one of you will be thrown in prison!"
"The Ministry of Magic?"
Instead of looking panicked as he had expected, the young girl before him burst out laughing.
"That's fine. The Ministry of Magic already knows."
Hermione turned and pointed at Newt beside her, introducing him with a perfectly straight face. "This is the younger brother of Mr. Scamander, the Ministry of Magic's Chief Auror."
Then she pointed at Thena. "And this is Ms. Goldstein, former Chief Auror of the Magic Congress."
The fat owner's expression froze.
Then she pointed at herself. "As for me, I'm the sole officially designated partner of the Ministry of Magic's anti-Grindelwald investigation team."
Next, she pointed at Credence. "And this gentleman is Credence the Obscurial, an extremely dangerous, top-priority fugitive jointly wanted by the Ministries of Magic of several countries."
Finally, Hermione turned to the Asian beauty in the cage with a cheerful smile.
"This beautiful lady is a top-priority cooperating witness through whom the Ministry of Magic's special task force has been secretly contacting the Obscurial."
"Oh, right..." Hermione smiled. "Who did you say you were going to have arrested? We're all right here, so go ahead and arrest us now."
The fat owner stood rooted to the spot, his face twitching wildly through an extraordinary range of expressions.
Reason told him they might be lying.
But his instincts were screaming warnings.