Ah, another wonderful essay. I really like reading those. Anyway, I also have something to add.

Ron
Count me among those who thought that Ron's chess skills would be important. But I gave up on that in OotP and hoped that maybe the contact with the brains would have some kind of effect. Instead all he gets his physical damage (the only one of the sextet, I might add), that no one cares about. The whole 'I'm tall too and also have scars' exchange in HBP was so painful to read. No wonder he went for Lavender. Finally someone was impressed by him, finally someone gave him some (positive) attention without any mind games attached.

Snape
I fully agree with jollityfarm about how Snape was desperate for some attention in school. It must have hurt to be so talented in Potions and the Dark Arts and be either ignored or hated for it. Slughorn, who was Head of Slytherin, favored the pretty muggle-born Gryffindor, when I'm pretty sure that Snape was better than her, simply because she looked like she was going to be more successful later on. Well, we all know what she accomplished in the end: married James, gave birth and died. Big whoop. We don't even know what kind of jobs Harry's parents had, if they even had any at all and didn't just live off James fortune.
And his talent in the Dark Arts was one of the reasons MWPP decided to torment him and the Dark Arts are generally considered bad and evil. No wonder he must have joined the Death Eaters, where his talents where finally appreciated