Re: Neville's dad's wand. I noticed that, too. The first thing I thought when he said it was his dad's wand was, "Oh! That's why he was always so bad at magic."
Re: Ron's wand. He had a hand-me-down wand (I think maybe Charlie's?) until it was broken in the Ford Anglia/Whomping Willow accident in CoS and kept backfiring on him (eww! slugs!). He got a new wand at the end of that book or the beginning of PoA, I can't remember which. His new wand has unicorn hair in it. I saw a theory somewhere (I think it was on the HP Lexicon) that the unicorn hair in his wand is not a good omen for Ron surviving the series, because of the unicorn killings in PS/SS and because Cedric's wand had unicorn hair as well.
Re: Percy turning Death Eater. Sorry, I still don't see it, either. He's too concerned with following the rules, and I can't see him being angry or evil enough to be willing to break the rules and use crucio or avada kedavra on someone. Although, making Percy a DE would be a good plot twist on JKR's part.
ETA: I'm only 39% addicted.
