Which edition of HeroQuest do you have? HQ1 with the two gods clashing on the cover, or HQ2 with the zeppelins and robot dudes fighting the woman against the cityscape? There's a huge difference between the two.
Assuming HQ2, the current edition, there are no spell lists. The concept of "common magic" is loosely something you'd find in the Glorantha setting: it refers to the magic you get when you use one of your Rune Affinities to augment a mundane skill, plus the handful of charms, spells, and talents you have.
In HQ2, when you create your character, you only need to jot down your affinity names (so, Air, Death, Truth, etc), and then come up with some cool names for the three charms, spells, or talents you start with. There are no fixed lists - if it helps you, pull some lists out of your favourite game, or your imagination, and remember to express their effects in HQ2 game terms (usually either as a modifier to another ability, or as an ability in its own right).
Let's say you want something to help you fight. You already have your "Sword and Shield +1" ability as part of your "Weaponthane 17" keyword, for example, giving you a "Sword and Shield 18" in combat; now you want magic to improve that. So you invent a spell: you could use a Gloranthan standby like "Bladesharp" to refer to a spirit charm you got from the local spirit talker, and give it a value of, say, 13. So you write "Bladesharp Charm 13" on your character sheet, and you can use that "indirectly", ie to augment your Sword and Shield ability when you fight (you might get a +3 or +6 bonus from the charm, increasing your Sword and Shield to 1M (21) or 4M (24) for that conflict).
HQ2 is very different from trad RPGs, and I can empathise when you say you're not too comfortable with the whole system. It's an RPG for telling stories, rather than simulating battles, and there's a bit of unlearning and doing things differently needed before you grok the system. But, if you start simply (probably with simple contests to start with), using obvious augments and abilities, it will click! This group is great for answering niggling questions you have - I do it all the time :-)
Cheers,
Sarah
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