Des, rising around midnight, moved carefully (5)
I believe the answer is:
edged
'moved carefully' is the definition.
(I've seen this in another clue)
'des rising around midnight' is the wordplay.
'des' becomes 'dede' (I can't justify this - if you can you should give a lot more credence to this answer).
'rising' is a reversal indicator (going up in a down clue).
'around' is an insertion indicator.
'midnight' becomes 'g' (the middle letter in 'night').
'dede' backwards is 'eded'.
'eded' going around 'g' is 'EDGED'.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for edged that I've seen before include "Made moves that were gradual" , "so moved forward slowly" , "Moved sideways slowly" , "decorative border" , "with the ability to cut" .)