Malfoys' House Elves

[Rita Winston]

Hogwarts has around 100 House Elves. Someone tells us that Hogwarts 
has more House Elves than any other house in Britain. That surely 
suggests that several houses have more than one House Elf each. In 
which case, surely Malfoy Manor would be one of the houses that has a 
great many House Elves. 

The House Elves could do most of the house that would normally, I 
mean Mugglely, be done by various classes of servants -- for example, 
if the Malfoys want each serving platter to float gently around the 
table to visit each person and the serving fork to place some of that 
food onto each person's plate [part of footmen's job], if they don't 
have enchanted servingware to do it, House Elf magic can do it 
without the House Elves being seen. Presumably some combination of 
magic artifact and House Elf magic makes it possible for a porcelain 
figurine on the mantel in the parlor to announce "Dinner is served" 
in a euphonious voice (part of butler's job), so that Malfoys would 
not have to be summoned to table by a dinner-bell like a bunch of 
farmhands.

But how good are House Elves with numbers? Can they receive the bills 
in the [Owl] post, verify that the bills are accurate, and write 
checks to pay them? How good are House Elves with money? Can they owl 
order new cookpots, bedsheets, laundry powder -- ordinary stuff that 
needs to be replenished from time to time? Can they go grocery 
shopping for food? If the House Elves can't do that stuff, I can't 
imagine Narcissa deigning to do it herself, she would need a 
human(like) upper servant, a housekeeper or butler.

Narcissa must be getting tons of owls all the time. Do you think she 
has magic to tell her which messages to throw away unread, which to 
respond to with a form letter of politely negative reply, which to 
respond to with a cheque, which to actually read herself, and what 
new commitments to enter in her datebook? If not, either she has to 
do that work herself or have a human(like) social secretary.