NPE Deleting Element from AutoMap

[VirtualTim]

Code looks like this:

XBProjector projector = new XBProjector();
CloseableMap<String> xmlMap = projector.io().file("path_to_existing_xml_file").bindAsMapOf(String.class);

//Called later on
xmlMap.remove(key);  //Throws NPE in DuplexExpression.deleteAllMatchingChildren, as parentNode is null (?)

//Attempt 2
xmlMap.entrySet().removeIf(entry -> entry.getValue() == null || Objects.equals(entry.getValue(), "")); //Appears to do nothing, I'm guessing it swallows the same NPE

Any ideas?