I want to thread her with Juliana! Juliana is a spinster and secretly an academic (and also asexual interestingly enough, though she doesn't actually have language to describe that due to the time period). They could have come across one another at the Crowdy Memorial Library, or at the bookstore in Hogsmeade - Juliana's brother owns the latter and she spends a lot of free time at the former. They could be, if not exactly friends yet, then at least "I keep seeing you around reading books and I have been smiling in your direction a lot" sort of acquaintances.

EDIT: ACTUALLY, if you're interested, maybe Beth could take this thread? Could be that they had a we-see-each-other-around-but-never-talk sort of relationship for years and then Juliana struck up a conversation in order to panic invite her to this party?