Nod. "But it seems to have better prospects than just 'continue hanging rapists, hope wizards get the point'."

"Yes."

"Also magical China is very confused about what sterilization entails, that isn't very important but can't be helping anything."

"...what'd they think it meant?"

"They were under the impression we were going to sever his testicles entirely! I do not know why they thought that! I reviewed the court transcripts and definitely no one said that!"

"Minimally invasive sterilization is not, like a common use case on Earth."

"Is that even safe? I think it'd cause problems with hormone levels - I guess your hormones are less finicky -"

"We're not going to come up with more punitive non-death sentences to make up for the end of the death penalty I've thought about it too but I think it's a bad road to go down."

"If you do it to little boys they can sing really high as adults, they do it in Italy I think."

Amentans look appalled.

"Might be a better deterrent than a prison sentence, I guess."

"Could survey victims and ask how they'd feel about it."

" - sorry, did you guys just literally encounter the idea for the first time and immediately start considering whether it should be the penalty for rape?"

" - well, we couldn't really have considered it any sooner."

"It's just a weird, uh, pendulum of 'that's barbaric', 'hmm maybe if it reduced prison costs and kept crime rates low'. Very, ah, Amentan of you."

"Would humans, having found it barbaric, decide not to evaluate the question of whether it worked?"

" - there are definitely humans who'd go 'that's barbaric what a good idea' but 'that's appalling, I'm horrified, I guess I should conduct a survey to check whether it works' - that's all you. Cultural, I don't think it's innate, but definitely a you thing."

" - do you object if we teach people to do that, it's kind of an important thing to be able to do if you are responsible for laws that affect a lot of people."

"I expect you noticed this because of being a Timothy but we kinda stopped objecting to things you do when other people attacked you."

"I did notice that but was not presuming it permanent. I do think that arranging that nonmagical humans be under the auspices of a magical government that prohibits crimes against them is important, though, and should possibly take priority over other things we were planning on that front."

"It's a good idea if it can be done. I'm not sure about involving the theater department, that seems iffy."

"Why's that?"

"If anybody investigates closely they'll have to all seem to be from a coherent wizarding culture that doesn't exist without being wizards. Muggleborn wizards in their native country sometimes have trouble passing for Muggles, after they've been to school long enough."

" - yes, that's precisely why I want to involve a theatre group."

"I'm saying this is a hard job and I'm not sure you can access good enough actors who can coordinate improvisationally without a chance to talk to each other during the, uh, performance."