HBP's potions discoveries - why keep them secret?

[bocadetomates]

No: HPFGUIDX 140699


 
bibphile wrote:

I don't know why Snape didn't publish his discoveries but it's very
possible that he has been teaching them. As far as I remember Harry
didn't use a potions book in his second through fifth years. Snape
wrote instructions on the board. Snape could easily have been
teaching his improved formulas. Depending on how many students you
think are in Harry's year it's possible that as many as 25% of the
students in Harry's year got O's on their potions O.W.L.S. (more if
some made O's but didn't take NEWT level courses). If they were
asked to make a potion from their own knowledge without instructions
(and I have no idea if they were) then Snape's superior formulas
might have contributed to the high number of O's.



bocadetomates now:

First, thank you for responding. Snape not being a sharer could well 
explain why he doesn't publish his stuff. Seems like I thought of him 
as too much of an academic (as they need to publish to keep their 
positions).

As for Snape teaching his discoveries, I agree that it's very 
possible, but I don't entirely go along the hints or evidence 
bibphile pointed out. 
Minor objection about the use of potions books:
Harry did use a potions book at least in PoA (and so presumably in 
CoS, GoF and OOTP, though I haven't looked up canon evidence for 
that): 
"This separation from his spellbooks had been a real problem for 
Harry, because his teachers at Hogwarts had given him a lot of 
holiday work. One of the essays, a particularly nasty one about 
shrinking potions, was for Harry's least favourite teacher, Professor 
Snape, who would be delighted to have an excuse to give Harry 
detention for a month."
So apparently Harry needed his potions book (the one from first year, 
I guess) to do his homework. Of course, this doesn't contradict Snape 
writing his own instructions on the blackboard.

As for the calculation of all the "Outstanding" people in Harrys NEWT-
class:
This might be an oversight of mine, but do we really *know* they all 
had O's in their OWL? Harry for one didn't. I thought that maybe some 
of them realized a bit quicker than Harry that with Slughorn as a 
teacher they could take NEWT potions with an E, too.

Of course, these are purely mechanical issues, but it didn`t seem to 
me that the potions NEWT group was larger than the other NEWT 
classes, indicating an overproportional success of the students at 
potions.

Boca