Drusilla (we don't know her last name) was born in England somewhere around 1840. She probably grew up in the rural area around London as she was from a mining community and yet took confession in the city. She was a raised a fervent Catholic, which is an oddity for an Englishwoman at that time. Dru probably lived a comfortable life of the middle class, since pomegranates and lemons were too expensive for any lower class person to eat regularly. Her mother was very strict and literally instilled the fear of God in her gentle, young daughter. But this was a common practice - both because of the times and because Catholics were such a minority in England - and Dru loved and adored her mother very much, despite the bible thumping and harsh words.
Drusilla's life would have been like that of any other girl her age if not for one thing. She was psychic. Her mother chastised Dru for her gifts saying that only God was supposed to know the future and regularly announcing that her daughter was going to be damned for her heresy - even though her powers we're out of Dru's control.
It was because of the absolute terror that her faith instilled in Drusilla about her visions that she trekked into the city one day to take confession. Unfortunately her confession was not heard by a man of the cloth, but by the vampire Angelus and Drusilla's life was never the same. Angelus immediately saw that Drusilla's visions we not heresy, but something very powerful that he could use to his own advantage . . . if only he could get his hands on them.
Over the next few months or years Angelus stalked Drusilla, destroying everything that she held dear. Now how long he stalked her isn't very clear, but I think it must have been a few years since Dru wasn't married yet when she took that fateful confession. A woman was almost always married by nineteen or twenty (unless she could afford otherwise) and since Dru was not, we can guess that she was still in her mid-teens when Angel first saw her. Her beloved mother and father were almost definitely the first to go. Slowly Angel widened his circle, moving to uncles, aunts, grandparents, cousins and friends father and farther removed one at a time. Drusilla ran and Angelus followed her wherever she went; probably waiting for her to calm down and get comfortable before making his bloody presence known again. No matter where she took refuge, or how safe she though she was this time, he would show up and more people would die. It's no wonder that poor Drusilla eventually went insane.
It finally got to the point where all Drusilla had left was her faith, and she took refuge in a convent. But even the walls of a house of God couldn't keep Angelus from his prize, and he turned her into a vampire the very night she took (or was to take) her holy orders. Whether Drusilla had already taken her vows - and thus was already a bride of Christ - or not when Angelus turned her isn't clear.
She and Angelus probably became lovers almost right away. Not too long after her siring, Angelus' 'firstborn' William rejoined his sire and new 'little sister' (I'm guessing) and Drusilla once again had a family. She began collecting china dolls - my guess as a compensation for the children and friends she could no longer have - and took them with her everywhere the family went. The three vamps hunted the night together, taking victims and having a good time. The scared, pious little girl was no more and the Drusilla we know today began to take shape.
Once she became a vampire, Drusilla's visions grew in intensity. They became actually painful, some even debilitating. No matter where she went now, the voices haunted her. Ringing in her ears and pounding in her brain. Her insanity intensified as well, leaving her an odd mix between woman and child. It is because of Drusilla's mental state (I'm supposing) that she began to think that her dollies were talking to her. When she was alive her psychic ability ended at visions, but now the voices screamed in her head and with a child's rationing, she deduced that her dolls were the ones speaking to her. She gagged the dolls, hoping that would quiet the voices, and would punish dolls that 'spoke out of turn'.
Drusilla had very different relationships with her sire and 'brother'. Dru and Angelus' relationship seems to have revolved around torture. Mental torture. Physical torture. Sexual torture. Probably all of the above. They both seemed to have relished and gotten off on finding new ways to hurt each other. William, on the other hand, adored his 'baby sister' and pampered her every chance he got. William might have even been very much in love with Dru while she was still exclusively Angelus', we don't know.
There is a great, yawning thirty year gap in our knowledge of Drusilla that starts after she was sired and ends around the turn of the twentieth century. After thirty years or so with his children, Angelus left them to go globe-trotting with his own sire, Darla. Drusilla has never spoke of Darla or her sire (I guess) the Master, so we can deduce that she was never introduced to or told of them. We can presume (since no one is here to stop us) that not long after Angelus left his 'daughter'/lover and 'son', Drusilla and William became lovers.
There isn't really all that much we know about Drusilla during the last nine and a half decades. She and William fed their way across Europe to China, where he bagged his first Slayer around 1900 or 1901 and apparently they were quite good at throwing parties. After that we can only guess as to what they did or where they went until the fall of 1997 (when School Hard first aired). While living in Prague with her beloved William (now known simply as Spike) Drusilla was mobbed and nearly killed by a group of mortals with a major beef. We don't know what sent them into such a frenzy or how they realized what she was, but my guess is that she got a bit too cocky or ate one too many rosy-cheeked toddlers. Spike was barely able to pull his Darling Dru out of the crush and get her to the 'safety' of Sunnydale.
Drusilla is a very interesting character, mostly because of the strange way that her reasoning seems to sit on the line between a child's and an adult's. She is neither and yet she is both. She is soft and child-like yet she is also a hard hearted, cold-blooded killer. She seems thoroughly dependant on others and yet is strong and smart enough to take care of herself. Dru is a total paradox in almost every way, which makes her one of the most amazing characters to watch. You never know what she'll do next!
Note: this Biography of Drusilla is based ONLY on what was said and done on the show! I know that Joss has decided to change his mind on a few points after the fact, so I don't want any nasty E-Mail telling me that this biography is wrong about this and wrong about that! It is ONLY based on what has already been saved to celuloid!
Note: Any and all opinions and/or assumptions are mine and mine alone!