Harry the author

[Judy]

No: HPFGUIDX 175442

Guru wrote, about the Half-Blood Prince's potions book::
> > I've been wondering why Severus hadn't already written that book 
> > or its equivalent.  In PS/SS he introduces the class to the 
> > wonders of potions, and you can tell he is passionate about the 
> > subject. One would think that having figured out how to improve 
> > the art, he would have, at least, been teaching the class out of 
> > his annotated version of the text, if not having written his own.

Here's my theory, as an academic and a Snapefan:
Snape hasn't published his "secret recipes" because then they would 
no longer be *secret*. As long as he is the only one with this 
knowledge, he can run - er, brew - circles around the other potion 
makers.  Knowing Snape, it would bother him to have others able to 
duplicate his success at potions, and it might even interfere with 
his work, either for Voldemort (who seems to have Snape doing 
*something* at home in Spinner's End, with Wormtail's assistance), or 
for the Order. 

I imagine that Snape would keep an eye out to make sure that no one 
else was developing the same knowledge (since he would of course want 
to publish first), but since not even Slughorn seems to have come up 
with recipes as good as Snape's, Snape probably feels confident that, 
for the time being, he is in no danger of being scooped.

Presumably, Snape would plan to have his recipes published in due 
time -- either posthumously in the event of his untimely death, or 
during his retirement, in the unlikely event that he lived that long.

Snape seems to be quite aware of the risks he was running. I imagine 
that he foresaw the possibility of a sudden death and made provisions 
to ensure that he would received credit for his advances in potion 
making.  After his death, I assume that Minerva would find neatly-
written manuscripts of Snape's potions advances and other magical 
innovations sitting on the Headmaster's desk, with references to 
Sectumsempra and anything else Dark discretely removed. 

-- JudySerenity