House-Elves and the Weasleys

[ats_fhc3]

No: HPFGUIDX 47829

Okay, the canon for who has a house elf is as follows:

"Well whoever owns him [Dobby] will be an old wizarding family, and 
they'll be rich," said Fred.
"Yeah, Mum's always wishing we had a house-elf to do the ironing," 
said George. "but all we've got is a lousy ghoul in the attic and 
gnomes all over the garden. House-elves come with big old manors and 
castles and places like that; you wouldn't catch one in our house..."
(CoS, pg. 29, paperback, US Edition).

Granted, house-elves are probably passes on in families, as Winky 
later tells HHR that her mother and her grandmother were serving the 
Crouches. However, house-elves don't need to be paid (unless you're 
talking to Hermione). And, now, there's a certain house-elf who has 
lost her job...Yes, Winky. The Weasleys are a great family, and I'm 
sure Mrs. Weasley would make sure Winky wouldn't be overworked or 
antyhing. Plus, compared to her last job, Gred and Forge should be a 
piece of cake. So why couldn't the Weasleys pick up an elf that had 
been dismissed?

Also, how many house-elves would a family have? Winky was the only 
elf to serve the Crouches; When Harry indirectly frees Dobby, Lucius 
says "You've lost me my servant". Not '*one* of my servants', 
but '*servant*'. Would other families have reason to have more house-
elves?

Lastly, how do...um...we get baby house-elves? Would it be anything 
like slave trade, where plantation owners picked the slaves with the 
best qualities and "mated" them? Because while Winky mentions her  
mother and grandmother, she doesn't mention any males. Perhaps she 
doesn't know her biological father? Perhaps her mother didn't even 
know him that well? If that's true, I'm going to start thinking of 
joining S.P.E.W. 

-Acire, who has noticed the JKR likes using semi-colons; some of her 
sentance have more than one.